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Planniniinp Civic Comment
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page
Planning Review of 1943, Part I 1
Zoning Round Table 10
Zoning to Aid Efficient Police Administration? Classification of Business Uses According to Access Fairfax Proposes a Flexible Density Formula
Portland Improved 13
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning, St. Louis, June
14-16 15
Power on the Potomac is Proposed Again 16
Watch Service Report 21
Board Meeting Action 23
Parks — Pictorial Section 25-40
State Park Notes 41
Wartime Use of Recreational Facilities 42
County Zoning Regulations 46
Recent Court Decisions 47
Short Courses in City and Regional Planning at M.I.T. . . 49
Tomorrow's London 50
Rochester's Planning Problem 53
Press Contributes to Planning and Civic Improvement ... 56
Eliel Saarinen's The City 58
For Better Roadsides 60
In Memoriam 62
Frederick C. Zobel
J. M. Bennett Recent Publications .... .63
JANUARY 1944
CITIZENS CONFERENCE ON POSTWAR PLANNING
STATLER HOTEL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. JUNE 14-16, 1944 Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Association at St. Louis, 1904
.- ..-I.-- PLANNING AND .;: CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
Official Organ of: American Planning and Civic Association, National Conference on State Parks
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD
HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS JOHN IHLDER
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT GEORGE INGALLS
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW RAYMOND F. LEONARD
EDWARD M. BASSETT RICHARD LIEBER
RICHARD E. BISHOP THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RUSSELL V. BLACK ROBERTS MANN
PAUL V. BROWN J. HORACE MCFARLAND
STRUTHERS BURT HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM KATHERINE MCNAMARA
GEORGE L. COLLINS HAROLD MERRILL
MARSHALL N. DANA MARVIN C. NICHOLS
S. R. DEBOER JOHN NOLEN, JR.
EARLE S. DRAPER F. A. PITKIN
NEWTON B. DRURY HUGH R. POMEROY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o ISABELLE F. STORY
L. C. GRAY L. DEMING TILTON
S. HERBERT HARE BEN H. THOMPSON
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY TOM WALLACE
HENRY V. HUBBARD CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
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Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at Harrisburg, Pa.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 10
January, 1944
No. 1
Planning Progress, 1943
By CARL FEISS, Planning Director, the Denver Planning Commission (*)
PRESENTED IN TWO PARTS
PART I
The year 1943 has been one in- volving many important funda- mental changes in the basis for plan- ning at all levels of government throughout the United States. The war, which has altered the status quo and the intellectual repose of democratic countries, has probably changed more planning policy and action than any other single event in the history of American planning enterprise. Three distinct elements emerge as motivating factors in the philosophy of planning in govern- ment at the four major levels: na- tional, state, regional and local.
The first element, a general recog- nition throughout the country that full postwar employment of our armed forces and war workers is essential, has placed political in-
*For three years, John Miller, Chief of the Field Service section of the NRPB presented an outstanding summary of Planning Progress throughout the United States in this periodical. Mr. Miller, not only because of his ability but because of his strategic location in Washington, was in a position to keep his hand on the pulse of national, state and local planning and gauged with great accuracy the fluctuations of planning fever in our national corporate body. A diagnosis at long range, coming
terests suddenly to the fore in the preparation of plans. Second, in- dustry itself has begun to take specific steps towards planning for its future. Third, planners, par- ticularly physical planners, working in government are crystallizing post- war public works programs in an attempt, not only to be ready to meet future employment demands but also in order to forestall future action from outside agencies, either public or private, which might inter- fere too severely with local initiative. Combinations of these three in- fluences have created new and un- usual types of planning enterprise, the value of which is still to be weighed in the light of future ac- complishment.
While the three elements men- tioned above may be considered derivative of the war effort in the sense that they are deviations from an established norm of peacetime planning in the United States, it would be difficult to say that these impulses were a constant, or estab- lished in a regular procedure. Na- tional mobilization for war indus-
from the point of meeting of the great tries and the armed forces has played plains of the Rocky Mountains may mis- and in all probability will play, the
interpret many important symptoms or miss them altogether. This is no apology, it is merely a statement of fact. — C.F.
dominant planning part in the over- all national picture for some time to
1
1198228
MAR 2 1 194*
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come. (See "Regional Distortions Resulting from the War" — Survey of Current Business, U. S. Depart- ment of Commerce, October, 1943.)
Decisions related to the strategy of location of war industry, training centers for the armed forces and other important influences involving shifts in population, exploitation of raw materials, the use of existing and the construction of new indus- try and transportation, play such a dominant part in national, state, regional and local plans that any estimates on the success of postwar planning conjecture remain subor- dinate to the many unknowns re- cently or about to be created through war enterprise. This natural super- imposition of forces dealing with war and international problems has brought local planning for the first time into a realization of its impor- tance to the national picture. Amer- ican planners are coming to under- stand, as have planners in England and Russia, that where national in- terests are at stake no local area is immune from external influences and no local area is so completely isolated that it may continue to plan without influencing or being in- fluenced by the national interest.
It is important to make one point in relation to the entire national awareness of change in the structure of American society during the war. Such an awareness appears to be local rather than national in concept. A riot in New York, Detroit, or Los Angeles seems to be regarded as a mere boiling over of a slightly over- heated local pot. That gigantic and profound population shifts and work shifts have taken place which will permanently affect all planning is
still to be realized. (See "A Place to Lay Your Head" — Harry Loring Binnse, The Commonweal, Dec. 31, 1943.)
It is all well and good to say that planners are not to be concerned with the social aspect of their job. But planning is for people. The physical improvement of the coun- try cannot be based on money value alone since such value in itself is related to society as a whole and the individuals who make up society. Population shifts, for any reason whatsoever, have personal motives behind them. These motives will vary from a flight from the dust bowl to a search for a high paid job in a war plant or a move to a snooty subdivision because of snob appeal advertising. Those planners who believe that they can do an adequate war and postwar planning job, bas- ing their ideas on the preparation of a shelf full of public works alone, are going to find that they have been working in a vacuum. Much of the planning done during the past year seems to be little more than that.
Vast shelves of public works are now filled. Super-deluxe highway schemes are now snaking their way around and through the old city gridirons. Hardly a public works reserve scheme is to be found that doesn't base on roads, roads, and more roads. It is as if the auto- mobile (and occasionally the air- plane) has become in the mind of the planner, the personification of man. The satisfying of the needs of the automobile becomes para- mount in the structure of the com- munity and the machine, in its glories of mechanical perfection and shiny beauty, replaces drab man
Planning and Civic Comment
with all his frailties, as the basic planning unit.
A few instances of thoughtful neighborhood rehabilitation plan- ning appeared during the course of the past year, indicating that some time is still being given to the physi- cal layout of homes and better neighborhoods. Studies prepared by the Chicago Planning Com- mission retain high standards of de- sign and imagination in this field. However, such plans are the excep- tion rather than the rule, due pos- sibly to the natural loss of prestige during a war year of housing pro- grams for slum areas and high blood pressure whenever large scale public housing and slum clearance is men- tioned. ("A Truce Upon Your Housing!" — Dorothy Rosenman, Survey Graphic, Jan. 1944.) Even the fact that two neighborhood re- habilitation bills were presented to the Congress during the year had little effect on local planning schemes. The subject was too delicate to men- tion publicly and planners, having been replaced by real estate enter- prise in the role of reformer, went back to their highways rejoicing that theirs was no longer a job of leadership in a field of controversy.
It is becoming apparent that plan- ners are not yet sure enough of their proper roles, either as independent practitioners or as public servants and officials, to assume the personal responsibility of local leadership in fields which are of a national con- troversial nature. This past year is proof enough of this fact. Planners talked a little among themselves about the dissolution of the Na- tional Resources Planning Board. They discussed in their highly in-
tellectual periodicals the pros and cons of the neighborhood rehabilita- tion bills. They glanced with puz- zled mistrust at the Lea Bill and its successor, having to do with na- tional aviation planning, and at the Interregional Highway Plans of the Public Roads Administration but no "voice of the turtle is heard in the land."
Despite the inertia and confusion now existing, it is safe to say that, nationally speaking, planners are more aware of the important role which they may play in the future physical and economic development of the country than they have been heretofore. Whether this awareness will result in concrete and unified action still depends somewhat on the ability of planners to develop leadership, to define their jobs, and to assert themselves in their proper role, whichever it may be.
International Planning. Since the future of our country is closely tied up with the future of the world, all types of international planning di- rectly affect us. The Teheran Con- ference, the Cairo Conference, and many others in which the United Nations met to discuss their mutual problems, while not revealing pub- licly the details of international agreements in preparation, do reveal that not only political and military matters are under discussion but also that physical, economic, and social plans are as well. What effect such discussions will have on the use of our natural resources during the remainder of the war and the post- war period; what the effect of such conferences will be on our trade futures, our tariff barriers and on our agriculture and manufacturing
Planning and Civic Comment
still remain to be determined. The development of discussion in Eng- land, Russia and the United States, as well as South American countries, on the international routing of aviation and freedom of the air, is of great significance to our local planning, as is the extension and work done on the Pan American and Alaska highways.
The fortification of island bases in the Caribbean, the Aleutians and the North Atlantic, the establish- ment of trans-oceanic air bases for the movement of American men and materials, the use of American capital, engineering skills, and in some cases, labor, for the opening up of inaccessible raw materials (viz: the Canol project in the Canadian Northwest and the Rio Doce in Brazil) all ultimately form an ex- tension of national interest and therefore national planning policy beyond the political borders of the country and its territories. Many of our best planning engineers and designers have been employed in these tremendous enterprises and will return to this country after their jobs are completed with new ex- periences to guide and influence them in their handling of local affairs.
A number of our planners in military foreign service and the A. M. G. are gaining further knowl- edge and experience in planning problems outside of the United States, and we can expect to gain further benefits of such experience locally on their return.
One other element in international planning concerns us, and this is the effect of the further dissemina- tion of knowledge of planning pro- cedure now under way in Europe
and Asia which is being studied by American planners. Such important documents as the Uthwatt Report and the Beveridge Plan, plus many other important British postwar planning publications and state- ments of their officials, are having considerable effect on planning think- ing in the United States. Much fur- ther knowledge of Russian planning is now available to us than a year ago, and has been widely studied and discussed. Despite the fact that the International Conference of Housing and Town Planning can not be held, all of these factors men- tioned above should point to a fuller participation in this Conference in the future by planners from the United States — men and women who have been notoriously absent from such important proceedings. This past year should prove a vital one for the planting of the seeds of such future action on our part.
Military Planning. The planning of the Army and Navy in the ex- pansion of their various important activities throughout the country can for obvious reasons be discussed only in the most general terms. However, any discussion of the na- tional planning picture of the last year cannot fail to mention such activity, not only because of its large scale but also because of its future effect on the country as a whole and on local areas. The Navy and the Coast Guard have completed chains of coastal defense along all of the strategic and exposed portions of our national coastline and our island possessions. The length of the war and future strategy of government in relation to international policy will determine the future disposal or
Planning and Civic Comment
return to private or public hands of many coastal recreational points. New military roads and railroads connecting such installations, during the last year, have made sections of our coasts more conveniently ac- cessible in the future. Simultan- eously, however, with such coastal developments has come in many spots of very great overcrowding and the construction of great numbers of temporary installations including war housing. The ultimate dis- posal of such installations and the return of the land to its former or a more productive peacetime use will remain problems to be solved.
Inland, both the Army and the Navy have acquired vast areas of land for the purpose of training men, testing and storing of equipment. Many areas were selected because of their isolation and low land cost, but it was obvious that few such areas could be found which were relatively accessible for the shipment of men and supplies which did not at the same time take out of production land of some agricultural or indus- trial value. The effect on a local economy of the removal from pro- duction of such lands has been severely felt locally throughout the country during the past year. The major effect has been on tax value, particularly for school districts in rural counties.
Military authorities have found it necessary in many cases to con- struct roads, drain swamps, and pro- vide utilities and services in areas which they needed where the local counties were unable to assume ad- ditional burdens. In many places such improvements unquestionably will have a peacetime usefulness long
after their immediate military ne- cessity has been eliminated.
In the construction of roads and in the developing of air fields, as well as preparing land for encampments, army engineers have developed new techniques and much new ma- chinery which will be useful to plan- ning engineers. There has been a rapid spurt forward in the invention of all types of power driven equip- ment which should lower costs of development in the future.
Perhaps of greatest significance to future planning throughout the country is the army's development of a wide scattering of air bases for all types of planes, both inside and out- side of the United States. By the development of chains of military fields in areas where transportation and the clearance of the wilderness have been major factors to date limiting private enterprise, steps have been taken in the interest of the national protection which should benefit materially our future air transportation systems. This is particularly true in the north-south Western Hemisphere routes.
Towards the end of 1943 there ap- pears to have been a lull in the military construction boom and an administrative consolidation has taken place. Already a number of large munition plants have been closed — whether temporarily or per- manently it is too soon to tell — but such closing has pointed up al- ready many significant problems of demobilization and conversion of such plants, and provided a warn- ing which it is hoped will be heeded nationally.
Federal Plannin. The most im- portant event of the year from the
Planning and Civic Comment
Federal planning point of view was the elimination by the Congress of the National Resources Planning Board. This action was unques- tionably hasty and regrettable. An agency which for many years had been assembling and publishing im- portant statistical information about the Nation and which had time and again proved its great value to the Nation through its studies and plan- ning efforts, is dissolved at a time when advice on national planning problems is most badly needed, not only by the Congress but the people as a whole. That such action should have been taken the very year in which England had established a Ministry of Town and Country Planning makes the action even more questionable. It is to be hoped that the Special Committee on Post-war Economic Policy and Plan- ning, set up in the Senate in 1943 under Senator George of Georgia, will reinstitute an equivalent agency for the defunct NRPB.
The closing of the offices of the National Resources Planning Board, not only entailed a shutdown in Washington but also in all the re- gional offices as well. During the last year a number of these regional offices had been especially busy and the curtailment of their activities unquestionably seriously affected local planning. The Region One office had been devoting much time to assisting in the war effort, study- ing industrial and population trends and was working on acute war transportation problems in New England. The NRPB offices, par- ticularly on the West Coast, were pushing and assisting local public works programing through the loan
of specially trained public works analysts to both city and state plan- ning offices. In the meantime, at the home office, a number of im- portant reports were brought to a head and issued; some of them hav- ing been prepared in previous years. The report which created the great- est national interest of the group probably gave the coup de grace to the organization, dealing as it did with a program of national social security similar in purpose but different in methods from the Bever- idge Plan of England. Since few of the opponents to the plan seemed familiar with its contents, the attack on the whole, while disastrous to the NRPB did not negate the usefulness of the study. The question rather seems to be based on the propriety of a National Resources Planning Board in participating in this type of planning work — a question of time honored lack of a clear defini- tion of the limits of the planning field. This lack of definition makes it difficult to cull the specific planning activity from any and all Federal agencies in Washington or the regional offices of "decentralized" agencies. Administratively, one ac- tion of the past two years was to set up regional offices for nearly every important war agency and shifts were made in many of the older, established peacetime agencies. Ad- ministrative regionalism remained pretty much the decision of the par- ticular agency but certain cities re- ceived a great influx of Federal work- ers and much office space and hous- ing was acquired for the purpose. Hardly an important city missed the gravy boat and Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, and innumerable
Planning and Civic Comment
others now consider themselves little national capitals. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of overlapping of regions and a lack of planned lo- cation of centers of common ad- ministrative interest. As a result, the War Manpower Commission's regional office in one area may be several hundred nrles from the nearest regional office of the Na- tional Housing Agency, and the War Production Board's regional office may be in a third city, so that when a specific problem of emer- gency housing of war workers in an area some distance from any of the three cities comes up, and the plant is located on orders coming from Washington, there is what is known as bureaucracy. Perhaps the reader remembers that the final decision is made in the Washington office any- way, so that it doesn't matter.
The picture is, however, not as black as might be inferred from the above. The well-established, older agencies of the Federal Government, such as the Department of Agricul- ture, its subdivisions and their re- gional offices, have continued to handle their planning programs as efficiently as war dislocations permit. The same thing is true of the Public Roads Administration, which has successfully met war transportation problems in many areas despite the fact that employees and engineers have been shipped to foreign parts on many of the great highway proj- ects being developed by the United States to further the military effort. The National Housing Agency work- ing at top speed has a remarkable record of accomplishment in the construction of temporary war hous- ing units, not only in congested war
areas but in isolated sections of the country where the scarcity of men and materials has been further com- plicated by difficult transportation problems.
During the past year there has been much discussion among Fed- eral legislators on the preparation of various national planning bills. To date the most significant of these have been the bills drawn up for postwar highway financing to make up deficiencies in the national high- way system. Estimates of needed work total as high as fifteen billion dollars with a much needed con- centration in urban areas, and there is much discussion on a change of the system for the apportioning of Federal Aid among States. H. R. 2426 calls for an annual expenditure of one billion dollars by the Federal Government for each of the first three years immediately fo. lowing the ending of the war. (See Engi- neering News Record, Jan. 27, 1944, for a complete discussion.)
In aviation, Housing Bill 1012 was superseded by the Lea Bill H. R. 3420 submitted in October, 1943. This bill is of very great significance to planners because of its purpose in establishing an agency which will have the full power of enforcing necessary nation-wide standards on the location and the development of airports and their zoning. The bill, which appears to have much of the support of the major air lines and the Civil Aeronautics Board, is now being studied widely and should come to a head early in 1944.
Perhaps the most significant bills related to urban planning which were submitted during the last year were the Thomas (Utah) and Wag-
Planning and Civic Comment
ner bills on Urban Redevelopment. While the two bills differed widely in their proposals as to Federal or- ganization for assistance in the clearance of slum and blighted areas through Federal financing, the pur- pose is the same. The Wagner Bill, supported by the Urban Land In- stitute, is the more simple of the two and which seems to be the one that comes nearest to the liking of plan- ners. In both bills city planning commissions play an important part, and redevelopment schemes, before financing is approved, must be part of a city's plans. It is expected that the bills will be further revised and resubmitted in 1944.
It is interesting to speculate as to whether or not an attempt will be made by the Congress to establish legislation for the financing of a large-scale national public works program on a functional basis through Federal departments to the States, or whether there will be an attempt to combine the two as was done in previous years. The trend of legislation at the present moment, if the three bills mentioned above are any indication, is toward a de- partmental functionalization.
The interest of Congress in the promotion of private enterprise industry has been of considerable importance during the past year. The Small War Plants Corporation, the War Production Board, and agencies of the Department of Com- merce have done much to promote the orderly use of small industries throughout the country. In the process of this work, these agencies are developing promotional stand- ards for all types of fabrication of new materials and new items for
general consumption, and are stimu- lating many private research founda- tions in this type of work. This scientific important point of view, if continued, should go a long way toward assisting private enterprise in its postwar plans.
In addition to the above promo- tion of industrial planning, the De- partment of Commerce housed the Committee on Economical Develop- ment for several months before the CED moved its central offices to New York. The Bureau of the Budget has assumed the respon- sibility for the public works program which was being promoted mainly by the National Resources Planning Board.
A complete roster of all Federal planning activities is impossible in this short summary, but planners will find that close attention to such summaries of Federal activities as are to be found in our national plan- ning publications will be of great assistance in keeping them abreast of such important work.
National Planning Through Pri- vate Sponsorship. National planning interest on the part of the citizenry as a whole takes two forms: first, that which is promoted by those directly concerned with planning as a business or profession; and second, those who are concerned with plan- ning as it immediately affects busi- nesses and professions other than planning itself. Within the field of planning there has been little im- portant change during the past year in the activities of the major na- tional planning groups such as the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation, the American Society of Planning Officials and the National
Planning and Civic Comment
Planning Association. The Ameri- can Institute of Planners has tem- porarily ceased its activities, due to the war. However, planning con- ferences among the other groups continue. The American Planning and Civic Association conducted a successful midwestern conference in Omaha, Nebraska, during June, and the Annual National Planning Con- ference was held in New York dur- ing May. In addition to these con- ferences sponsored by the traditional planning groups, the National Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards and the Urban Land Institute devoted much time to postwar urban plan- ning at their Cleveland conference in November. The Tax Institute of Philadelphia held a series of re- gional conferences on municipal fis- cal problems relating to war and postwar planning which were sum- marized and published in 1943.
Many other groups interested in special aspects of planning, such as reclamation, conservation, forestry, and recreation, in their national conferences have discussed the plan- ning aspects of their work both for now and after the war. A number of urban planners have published dur- ing the year significant material on the subject: notably, Eliel Saarinen's book "The City, Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future"; Cleveland Rogers' "New York Plans for the Future."
Besides the National Association of Real Estate Boards, which has sponsored the national legislation on urban redevelopment mentioned above, the Committee on Economic Development began its organization for a Nation-wide program on in- dustrial planning. Basic to the Committee's policy is the stimulat- ing of industry to think in terms of its future and to get it to participate most actively in postwar re-employ- ment. The organization has set up a series of regional headquarters and employs a strong research staff which has published one report to date. Separately many industries have initiated their own programs and given them some publicity. Of significance also in this relatively new trend of interest on the part^of business and industry is the spon- sorship of sound community plan- ning by the editors of Time, Life and Fortune. Fortune Magazine is run- ning a series of articles on city plan- ning, beginning November, 1943, and the Architectural Forum has published a pamphlet "Planning With You" which has had wide distribution. In fact, all architec- tural magazines during the past year have devoted not only editorial comment but much illustrated ma- terial to the cause of both city and regional planning.
Continued in the April Number
Citizen service is the watchword Jor the Postwar Period. Civic leaders will find information and inspiration at the Citizens Conference on Postwar Plan- ning. See page 15.
Zoning Round Table
Conducted by HUGH R. POMEROY ZONING TO AID EFFICIENT POLICE ADMINISTRATION?
Mr. Wertheimer no longer stands alone. Until this issue of the Round Table he occupied the distinguished position of being the one person in the whole country who had used the Round Table (under its present direction) as a forum for discussion.* He is still distinguished**, but he is no longer solitary. He is joined by Dr. Spencer D. Parratt, Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, who asks:
A police department views its problems as the overcoming of hazards which result in crime. Isn't there an unexplored oppor- tunity in zoning American com- munities so that hazards will be reduced, with resulting increase in effectiveness in police admin- istration?
Dr. Parratt then comments on his own question, as follows:
The police beat must be con- structed to provide maximum protection in terms of available means. Beat construction would be facilitated if hazards occurring in related or similar time were arranged to aid the policeman. Hazards are related to frequency of violation in terms of experience; others to high values of extra- ordinary merchandise of concen-
*"SpeciaI Permits and Adjustments: Mr. Wertheimer Comments," Zoning Round Table in Planning and Civic Comment for April, 1943.
**We refer the reader to his continuing studies of land use controls, the latest being "Legislative and Administrative History of Acreage Limitations and Control of Speculation on Federal Reclamation Projects," Ralph B. Wertheimer, Bureau of Agri- cultural Economics, Berkeley, California, Decem- ber, 1943,
trated and easily moved form. Hazards, in relation to buildings, relate to ease of entrance, ease of secretive illegality within, and facility of exit and escape. Haz- ards are to persons (assault, lar- ceny against the person, robbery, etc.); to buildings (burglery, lar- ceny, etc.); to morals (occurring in crowded housing, and at places of amusement, playgrounds, parks etc.); to safety (dangerous high- ways, concentrations of people, such as schools, hospitals, old-age homes) ; to decency (saloons, night clubs, "questionable" rooming houses, drug stores, race tracks, gambling places "of the better sort," such as pinball machines, bingo games, etc.); and special hazards not otherwise covered (as arrangements as to fires, parades, circuses, trailer parks, camping grounds, "flop-houses.") It is suggested that the criteria traditionally used in classifying "areas" for zoning have been in use long enough to warrant:
1. Experimental studies relative to the hazard elements indicated above, to be made jointly with police administrators.
2. Zoning boards might consider the introduction of indicated data into area classification in particular cases.
This looks like a new approach to zoning. Maybe it isn't. Considera- tions of public safety were almost the only basis for the segregation of uses in the early regulations that were
10
Planning and Civic Comment
the forerunners of zoning. Both in these regulations, however, and in the beginnings of modern zoning, the segregation was usually to protect residential districts from uses that might cause conflagration. Some of the reasoning was rationalization, such as the argument that billboards might be the lurking places of per- sons with evil intent — whereas the dominant motive for getting rid of the billboards was the perfectly good one (that the courts are now beginning to recognize) that, as Robert Moses says, they are "a blot on nature and a parasite on public improvements."
In none of these examples was the regulation directly linked to a public administration problem, as would be
done by Dr. Parratt's proposal. The prophets of the broad concept of zoning have found the basis for zoning in the objectives of the mas- ter plan, and have called on the various processes of public adminis- tration— police power, current ad- ministrative procedures, and capital budgets — to provide effectuating machinery. But in Dr. Parratt's proposal the public administrator puts the shoe on the other foot and calls on zoning to facilitate the effi- ciency of public administration.
What do the readers of the Round Table have to say? I hope that you will not disappoint Dr. Parratt. You can ignore my pleas for comment — I just live here — but don't insult our guest.
CLASSIFICATION OF BUSINESS USES ACCORDING TO ACCESS
Somewhat more familiar is an- other proposal from Syracuse, call- ing for the segregation of uses in the central business district on the basis of predominance of pedestrian or of "drive-in" trade. One of the reports of the Syracuse-Onondaga Post- War Planning Council is that on a "Gen- eral Plan for the Central District," prepared by the Syracuse City Plan- ning Commission (Sergei N. Grimm, Engineer), in January, 1944. This report says:
The protection of the pedes- trians on the streets with a heavy pedestrian traffic, as well as the protection of the properties used primarily for the business depend- ing upon the pedestrian traffic, can be assured by recognizing the two kinds of business establishments: one depending on the customers coming on foot, the other catering
to the "drive-in" trade. Such recognition and segretation of the two incompatible lines of business can be readily assured by appro- priate amendments to the existing zoning ordinance. On first examination of the uses that might fall in the "drive-in" category it might appear that they are just about those that are fre- quently classified apart from retail business uses, e. g., garages and gaso- line stations. But classification as to type of access, rather than the cus- tomary classification as to type of use (access, to be sure, being one factor used in determining the latter classification) brings about some interesting results. It would, of course, fit the situation in southern California and other places where drive-in markets must be taken into account. In a drive-in market the
11
Planning and Civic Comment
use is that of a grocery store, fruit store, meat market, et al. But the drive-in feature makes it quite a different factor in zoning than a store of the same type as found in most cities.
The proposal is not novel, but it takes on a somewhat different sig- nificance in connection with the further proposal in Syracuse to give some direction to the design of re-
developments and new develop- ments in the central district,* using the police power to supplement both eminent domain and voluntary ar- rangements.
The whole scheme ties well into the plan for a well-integrated sys- tem of traffic facilities, with auto- mobile parking areas, serving the central district.
FAIRFAX PROPOSES A FLEXIBLE DENSITY FORMULA
From Fairfax County, Virginia, comes the proposal for a more flex- ible application of density control than has heretofore been undertaken in zoning. The customary zoning practice is to establish in each dis- trict of different density a flat for- mula of so much land area per dwell- ing unit — whether this be 650 square feet, or 3 acres, as in one district in San Mateo County, California. Ar- lington County, Virginia, has al- ready made an interesting variation in the application of density stand- ards by varying the area require- ment in the same district in accord- ance with the size of the dwelling unit. Because the population of Arlington is relatively homogeneous economically, the size of the dwell- ing unit fairly consistently reflects the size of the family. Thus, the Arlington formula, which would not work at all in the usual community with a wide range of family incomes, tends to control the density of popu- lation in terms of numbers of persons as well as numbers of families.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission (Henry C. Moore, Di-
*In this connection see "Zoning as an Instrument of Design," Zoning Round Table in Planning and Civic Comment for April 1942.
rector) is concerned with laying down a realistic density pattern for the County, covering both the areas that should remain permanently agricultural and those that, as part of the Washington metropolitan area, are subject to suburban de- velopment. A low density, a mini- mum of 5 acres per dwelling, is pro- posed for the agricultural district. For the suburban and potentially suburban areas it is proposed within each district to maintain a sound over-all density but to permit ex- tensive variations in lot size per family.
The suburban density pattern is worked out in terms of estimated future population, related to the population pattern of the entire metropolitan area, and taking ac- count of desirable trends in urban expansion. If a flat formula were applied in each district, the result would be a required area per family that would be impractical in many instances: the minimum area would be greater than required either by the open space needs per dwelling unit, or by neighborhood amenity. Uniform application of the minimum area as determined by these latter
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Planning and Civic Comment
considerations, however, would de- stroy the over-all density pattern and make possible a type of develop- ment out of all relation to the orderly provision of thoroughfares, utilities, retail shopping accommodations, and other community facilities, in accordance with a sound master plan.
The Fairfax proposal maintains a desirable over-all density, but pro- vides for a realistic type of develop- ment, by permitting the developer of a subdivision to lay out residen- tial lots to an acceptable minimum size, subject to the allocation of
sufficient land for community open space to maintain the required over- all density for his entire tract of land. This probably would not work in a community that had already ex- perienced extensive development, but in the Fairfax situation it ap- pears to make a lot of good sense. The proposal will make possible the orderly and economical provision of public facilities and local govern- mental services, and in its open space aspects the pattern of the resulting development should produce a com- munity of high qualities of amenity and Jivability.
Portland Improved
One of the most discussed reports in recent years is that on Portland, Oregon, prepared by Robert Moses and Associates, made to the City of Portland, County of Multnomah and related official bodies, in the form of a quick diagnosis of public works in the early postwar period. There are 137,000 war workers in Port- land; 56,000 came from Oregon and most of them from the Western States. Though local optimism had envisaged a $100,000,000 program to employ 30,000 people in the 18 months after the war, the Moses group gave $60,000,000 employing a maximum of 20,000 people as an outside estimate. Mr. Moses counts on Federal and state contributions toward construction with city and county contributions toward land.
The program includes express arteries to be constructed by the State Highway Commission, with design funds allocated to Portland sufficient for a two-million-dollar construction program; sanitation,
public buildings, port, school and sewer works; street, park, tree planting and similar projects; and state work in the Portland region. The provision of an entirely new Union Station and grounds, an ex- tensive civic center with adequate open spaces, river front improve- ments, an outer scenic drive and improved throughways across the city; park and parkway extensions and permanent preservation of the steep wooded bluffs, as proposed, would correct many past neglects and give the Portland scene a charm consonant with its naturally beau- tiful setting and early development. But overall, Portland needs a new zoning ordinance rigidly enforced and nearby Multnomah County should be zoned. Portland spent $100,000 for this business report. The city will no doubt make ade- quate appropriations to its City Planning Commission to carry out its onerous duties under the recom- mendations.
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Planning and Civic Comment
14
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning
Statler Hotel, St. Louis, June 14-15-16
The American Planning and Civic Association has accepted the in- vitation of an eminent committee in St. Louis, composed of Harland Bar- tholomew, Chairman, Mrs. George Gellhorn, Vice-Chairman, E. J. Rus- sell, Lionberger Davis, George T. Moore and Luther Ely Smith, to hold its Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis on June 14-15-16. The original committee is being ex- panded into an extensive Sponsor- ing Committee, composed of civic leaders who have helped to make St. Louis what it is.
This is one of the most important conferences ever planned by the Association, which was organized in St. Louis foity years ago. For, if the United States should enter the postwar period with as little prepara- tion as it entered the war, we should be facing troublous times, if not outright disaster. Looking back- ward it now seems that if more war preparation had been carried on in the prewar peacetime, our present war schedule would be advanced far beyond its present state. It would seem, therefore, that during the war (so long as it does not interfere with the actual progress of the war) we should be making our peace plans to contribute to a speedy and efficient transformation from war to peace.
Private industry is making some plans; but, contrary to the complac-
ent opinions of some leaders, post- war conversion will require action by both business and government, even to realize the plans of private industry. And most thoughtful stu- dents of the postwar period believe that in addition we shall need a re- sumption of civic development which will require enormously increased activities on the part of local plan- ning agencies. We cannot afford to be caught short in the early peace period as we were in the early war period.
The program is being drawn to bring together eminent leaders who are working on plans to make the postwar period of maximum service to the citizens of the United States. The conference is being held at a time when the delegates may attend the famous St. Louis Outdoor Civic Opera.
Railroad accommodations should be secured well in advance to and from St. Louis and hotel reserva- tions should be made direct with the Statler, also well in advance.
Last year the State of Indiana brought 19 delegates to the Omaha Conference. The representative of the Indianapolis News who ac- companied the Indiana delegation to Omaha, recently gave a lectuie in Indianapolis on the Conference. This year leaders in Indiana promise 100 delegates, all deeply interested in postwar planning in Indiana. Other states please take note.
15
Power on the Potomac is Proposed Again:
By HARLEAN JAMES, Executive Secretary, APCA
The perennial proposal to develop power on the Potomac is with us again. Studies have been carried on in the District Engineer's Office of the Corps of Engineers of the War Department, under the authority of the Flood Control Act of 1936. In 1934, the President of the United States submitted to Congress a Pre- liminary Report on a comprehen- sive plan for the improvement and development of the rivers of the United States, and this Report was the basis of the Act. The map accom- panying the Report is reproduced on the back cover page of this issue.
In the late twenties power pro- posals on the Potomac came to a head, and, through the opposition of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and a large number of national and local pro- fessional and civic organizations, Congress made what was then thought to be a decision in the mat- ter. A review of the events of those years should throw light on the present situation.
It may be recalled that following the creation of the Federal Power Commission in 1920, the District Engineer of the Corps of Engineers, Major Tyler, prepared a plan to de- velop power on the Potomac. In 1927-28, the Potomac Power Com- pany, a subsidiary of the Byllesby interests, filed a petition for a pre- liminary permit from the Federal Power Commission, and the pro- posals roughly conformed to the Tyler Report. In August of 1927, at Harpers Ferry and Washington,
"This statement was published in the Sunday 'far, Washington, D. C., January 16, 1944. The editorial commenting on it follows the article.
hearings on the pending application to the Federal Power Commission were held before the District Engi- neer, Major Brehon Somervell (who by this time had succeeded Major Tyler). At that time the American Civic Association filed a brief oppos- ing the issuance of any such permit and the development of any power which would interfere with the pres- ervation of the Great Falls and the Palisades of the Potomac.
On February 15 and 17, 1928, hearings were held on the Capper Bill to create the Great Falls Park on the Potomac River and the Norris Bill to authorize the develop- ment of power on the Potomac by the Federal Government. In favor of the park bill there appeared representatives of the National Capi- tal Park and Planning Commission, the American Civic Association, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects and statements were filed by the American Forestry Association, the predecessor of the National Recreation Association, the National Conference on State Parks, the National Association of Audubon Societies and many others.
A Joint Committee was appointed by the Office of Engineers on behalf of the Federal Power Commission and the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, to investigate the feasibility of combining power and park development, with a view of ascertaining just what sacrifices in scenic features would have to be made in order to produce an eco- nomically feasible power develop- ment.
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Planning and Civic Comment
While these matters were pending Congress adopted the Capper-Cram- ton resolution to prevent the Federal Power Commission from granting a preliminary permit to any corpora- tion until Congress had an oppor- tunity of passing on the best use of the Potomac River for the public good. In September of 1929, the re- sults of the studies made by the Joint Committee were submitted to the National Capital Park and Plan- ning Commission, and a sub-com- mittee, consisting of Frederic A. Delano, Major R. Y. Stuart, Ste- phen T. Mather, and Frederick Law Olmsted, was appointed to bring in recommendations. Following the adoption of the Committee Report, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission adopted a resolution which is well worth quot- ing in full at this time, because it presents a gauge or measuring rod by which to assess the value of various proposals then and now:
RESOLVED, That the National Capi- tal Park and Planning Commission favors the acquisition of the Potomac Valley from Chain Bridge to and including Great Falls, and the development of this area for park purposes as funds may be made available, leaving it open for Congress at any future time to authorize the development of navi- gation, flood control, and power potentiali- ties of the area should such development become of greater importance and be justi- fied in the public interest.
The main considerations moving the Commission to the above action were as follows:
1. The Valley of the Potomac River from Chain Bridge to and including Great Falls, has, in its natural conditions, unique and distinctive scenic and recreational values accompanied by certain historic and scientific points of interest which, as a whole, make it extraordinarily important to the Capital of the United States. These values are unique and distinctive in the sense that this is probably the best example
in the Atlantic Seaboard States of the particular type of natural scenery here pre- sented, and that these natural scenic values are believed to be unexcelled by those in the vicinity of any national capital in the world. These values have not been fully appreciated and enjoyed by the public, mainly because the land is largely in pri- vate ownership and but little of the area is readily accessible.
2. Notwithstanding the ingenuity, re- sourcefulness, and painstaking care applied to the search for a method of conserving as much as possible of these values while de- veloping an economically sound power project, all such methods which have been devised, and all methods which seem likely to be possible, involve the sacrifice of the major part of these great though intangible scenic, recreational, and inspirational values, although they do so in considerably varying degree.
3. In other words, the two objectives of economically developing power on a large scale from the Potomac River, and of con- serving the peculiar and characteristic scenic, recreational, and inspirational values of this part of the Potomac River Valley are so essentially in conflict that they cannot both be attained in a satis- factory degree. Therefore, the only basis for avoiding an inefficient and illogical compromise is to determine which of these two objectives should be the controlling or dominant purpose, and then to seek, as a by-product, so much and only so much of the other objective as is consistent with the fully successful attainment of the objective selected as the dominant one.
4. The "combination park and power schemes" presented by the joint committee represent, essentially, attempts to arrive at a thoroughly successful economic develop- ment of the potential water power of the Potomac River in such a way as would per- mit the incidental creation of as good a park on the margins of that development as is consistent with the controlling pur- pose of power production. They tend to indicate that if power development is to be the controlling objective, a park could be created, even so, that would probably be Well worth the cost which its creation would add to that of a power project de- signed wholly without regard to park values. But it would be a totally different kind of a park from the natural valley. And the price of creating this different and less valuable kind of park would not merely be a matter of dollars, and of the lapse of many years for the healing of scars, but would include the destruction for all time
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Planning and Civic Comment
of essential characteristics which make the present natural river valley unique and distinctive as an appanage of the National Capital.
5. For such amount of power as would be used here, it does not appear that the prospective economic advantage to the National Capital and itp environs from any expectable savings in cost of power from this source as compared with others, even assuming that the saving would be passed on to consumers, would be so great, or that the people of this region and of the United States are so poor that they cannot afford to forego it for the sake of retaining a unique feature of the National Capital.
6. It would therefore seem inadvisable to decide now upon the destruction for all time of the scenic and recreational and inspirational assets of such large prospec- tive importance as those included in the Valley of the Potomac at the doors of the National Capital.
This resolution was adopted and approved by ten members of the Commission — Horace M. Albright, Sen. Arthur Capper, Frederic A. Delano, Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant, 3d, Col. W. B. Ladue, Milton B. Me- dary, J. C. Nichols, Frederick Law Olmsted, R. Y. Stuart, and Rep. Frederick Zihlman. General Jadwin did not concur.
The Cramton resolution effec- tively held up any action on the part of the Federal Power Commission. In the meantime Mr. Cramton took a positive step. He introduced into the 70th Congress a bill which pro- vided for the acquisition for park purposes of the land on both sides of the river up to and including Great Falls. In the 71st Congress this became the Capper-Cramton Act of 1930, and authorized $7,500,- 000, half an advance to the States of Maryland and Virginia and half a Federal appropriation, for acquisi- tion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. To this extent Congress committed itself, and in
the past fourteen years a consider- able amount of property has been so acquired. In addition, the entire C. & O. Canal from Washington to Cumberland, Maryland, was pur- chased from the B. & O. Railroad at a cost of $2,500,000, and is now in the custody of the National Park Service.
This commitment of Congress to a policy of acquiring continuous park lands on both sides of the Potomac from Washington to a point above Great Falls, seems quite deliberate. The policy of Congress directing studies to be made for the improve- ment and development of the rivers of the United States only incident- ally involves the Potomac and car- ries with it no promise that Congress will vote to sacrifice the investment it has already made and the invest- ment it contemplates to protect the •highly dramatic natural scenery of the Potomac River in the Washing- ton Region.
That the action of Congress in 1930 was taken after its committee was in full possession of all the facts and arguments for the power pro- posal, was abundantly clear at the hearings before the Senate Commit- tee on the Capper-Cramton meas- ure. At those hearings, the attorney for the Potomac Power Company presented Major Brehon Somervell, District Engineer, who outlined the original power proposals and certain compromise alternatives which would permit power development with less damage than the ruthless destruc- tion involved in the first plan. The National Capital Park and Plan- ning Commission advocated the de- velopment of a natural park on the banks of the Potomac.
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Planning and Civic Comment
There was a hypothetical saving of $100,000,000 promised by the power advocates, figured by count- ing the value of a giant hook-up on the Atlantic Seaboard, based on the existing differential between the cost of steam power and estimated cost of water power over a period of fifty years, the value of possible navigation, and increased taxation to the extent of more than $50,000,- 000 for the fifty-year period. Fi- nally the estimated value of a hand- some park was counted which it was said would cost the people of the District nothing. A vivid picture of the value of an industrialized valley was also presented. But these esti- mates of saving were ail made on the supposition that the natural park had no value and that the nearby residential property would not in- crease in value and tax returns. Moreover, no witness promised any lower costs fpr electricity to the people of the District.
We hear of a new approach today — a multiple-use program for the entire Potomac basin. But in 1928 there was a pending proposal for public power development. There was talk of navigation and flood con- trol. No new major elements have been injected into the picture. It is distinctly a warmed-up project. It may be that today there is more dis- position on the part of the engineers to shift locations of dams, as, per- haps to place the Great Falls Dam above the Falls where it can not be seen from the Falls, or to lower the height of the Chain Bridge Dam, or in other ways to make conces- sions which would work less damage on the park. From all we hear, too, there are proposals now utterly to
artificialize the Falls — to agree to let a definite amount of water flow from the Reservoir over the Falls for the daylight hours of seven months of the year, the rest of the time to leave the Falls bone dry, ex- cept in time of flood!
Out of a possible 25 or 30 de- velopments along the Upper and Lower Potomac, probably a few would be selected as initial projects, in case power is decided upon. It might even be that the initial de- velopments would occur in the Upper Potomac, although it was always claimed in the earlier proposals that the Upper Potomac Development, without the Lower between Chain Bridge and Great Falls, would be uneconomic. But who can suppose that if power development is started on the Potomac, pressure will not be constantly exerted to bring into use all of the waters of the river for power? The same may be said of any agreements, even those which might be written into Acts of Con- gress to limit the height of the dams or to permit certain waters to flow over the Falls instead of through a power plant. As a matter of fact the situation is not very different from that of 17 years ago. The same dams and power plants are proposed. Then and now it was explained that the power would be sold where a market could be found — Baltimore or even Philadelphia, if necessary. Which suggests the exploration of the Susquehanna where, probably at a cost less than the aggregate estimate for the whole flock of dams on the Potomac, a large single reservoir could be built to serve the region.
With liberal write-offs for flood
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Planning and Civic Comment
control and navigation, the invest- ment in power could probably be recovered over a period of fifty years if a steady market for the power could be developed and held. But there is a hidden cost not figured in any of these estimates — the great damage to the existing scenery of the Potomac in the Wash- ington Region. If this is figured at its true value, the whole multiple- purpose project becomes uneconom- ic as well as undesirable.
The dam above Great Falls would withhold great volumes of water, and the Falls would never again ap- proach the majesty exhibited on many days of most years in the past. Ambassador Bryce in his day could not conceive that we would not al- ways preserve this "noble cataract" which he considered unequalled in the vicinity of any European city. Something may be said for the regu- lation of water flow by which on some days when the river is low more water might be made to flow over the Falls. Nothing can be said for the great loss of water which gives the Falls their wild appearance and their international reputation. It may be admitted that some of the proposed changes would not be
catastrophic, but the flooding of the tall palisades to reduce their stature to mere rocky banks would utterly rob this stretch of the river of its characteristic beauty.
In addition to these highly un- desirable scenic changes there would be the almost certain transformation of pleasant residential suburbs into industrial communities in order to sell the power to repay the Federal investment. The National Capital has been established for more than 140 years. In all of this time it has been kept free from industry un- related to its function as the seat of the Federal Government. If the decision of Congress sustains its own past policy and selects as a major ob- jective for the Potomac in the vicinity of Washington the ac- quisition and development of a continuous natural park along the banks of the river, then the answer is clear. The people of this Nation can most certainly afford the worthy National Capital which they are building and they can afford to pre- serve the marvelously beautiful river setting which, by a veritable miracle, still exists practically un- damaged at the gates of the City.
An Old Fight Revived
Editorial from THE SUNDAY STAR, January 16, 1944
In this section of today's Star Miss Harlean James of the Ameri- can Planning Civic Association re- calls the battle of fifteen and more years ago between the power and park proponents over Great Falls and the Potomac gorge. Her article is timely because the lines seem to
be forming again to reopen a con- troversy which most people doubt- less thought had been settled for all time, with Congress committing it- self to preservation of the Potomac Falls and its environs as a great natural park. But history repeated itself last week when the Park and
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Planning and Civic Comment
Planning Commission, without di- vulging the nature of the power and flood-control dams which the Army engineers have been studying, as- signed the matter again for investi- gation by Frederick Law Olmsted, who will report later to the com- mission on his findings.
The nature of the dam system which the engineers may have in mind now has not been publicly re- vealed, and it is probable that considerations other than power de- velopment are concerned. But if the issue finally boils down to a decision as to the future of the Potomac at Great Falls, it is hard to believe that there will be any substantial support for a proposition which would destroy or permanently mar one of the great scenic and recrea- tional assets of the Capital. There were various ingenious plans pro- posed in the twenties to utilize the Potomac for power and at the same time create what undoubtedly would
have been an attractive park. But the Park and Planning Commission of that day concluded that no such combined treatment was possible; that if power development became the chief objective, with a park an incidental by-product, the damage would have been done.
Congress approved this decision by authorizing the George Washing- ton Memorial Parkway and in the past fourteen years acquisitions of land on both sides of the river have brought that parkway nearer reality, one of the greatest steps being the Government's wise, though un- anticipated, purchase of the C. & O. Canal. Nothing yet known about the engineers' visions of power dams can suggest any new reason to scrap the well-established plans for Poto- mac Park development, or to re- verse the decision of the commission and Congress in 1928 that the best interests of the public lay in that direction.
Watch Service
National Parks
S. 378 (Hayden) Introduced January 14, 1943. To provide for the addition of certain lands in the State of Arizona to the Montezuma Castle National Monument. Passed Senate June 15; passed House October 4. Signed by the President October 19, 1943. Public Law 164. This act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire certain lands known as the Montezuma Well property, containing approximately 180 acres. Such lands when acquired shall become a detached unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument. Appropriations are limited to $25,000.
H. R. 3524 (Randolph) introduced October 25, 1943. To provide for the establish- ment of the Harpers Ferry National Monument. Referred to Committee on Public Lands. The area is not to exceed 1,500 acres.
H. R. 2641 (Elliott) introduced May 6, 1943. To authorize the acquisition by ex- change of certain lands for addition to the Sequoia National Park. Passed House No- vember 15, 1943; passed Senate December 9, 1943. Approved January 3, 1944, Public No. 209.
H. R. 2241 (Barrett) introduced March 19, 1943. To abolish the Jackson Hole Na- tional Monument as created by Presidential Proclamation, 2578, dated March 15, 1943, and to restore the area embraced within and constituting said monument to its status as part of the Teton National Forest. Following hearings before the Public Lands Com- mittee, congressional hearings were held at Jackson, Wyoming, beginning August 15, before subcommittees of the Senate and House Public Lands Committees. On December 17, the bill was amended by striking out everything in the text beginning after the word
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Planning and Civic Comment
"abolished" on line 5, which declares the monument lands should be restored to the Teton National Forest, and the bill was reported out favorably by the Committee. If the monument is abolished it will be impossible to accept the 32,117 acres of land from John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
H. R. 3522 (O'Connor) introduced October 25, 1943. To extend the time within which the States of Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming may negotiate and enter into a compact or agreement for division of the waters of the Yellowstone River. Time extended to June 1, 1947. Referred to Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation.
Five bills have been introduced to repeal the Antiquities Act.
H. R. 2591— S. 1056 (Barrett-Robertson) introduced May 3, 1943. To amend sec- tion 2 of the Act entitled "An Act for the preservation of American antiquities," ap- E roved June 8, 1906, with respect to the creation of national monuments. These two ills provide for the addition of the following: No proclamation issued under this section after the date of enactment of this sentence shall become effective with respect to any lands described in such proclamation until the legislature of the State in which such lands are located shall have enacted a statute approving such proclamation." An adverse report has been made by the Department of the Interior. No action by the Committee.
S. 1046 (O'Mahoney and McCarran) introduced April 29, 1943. To repeal section 2 of the Act entitled "An Act for the preservation of American antiquities," approved June 8, 1906. This bill was reported out of the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys on June 9, without amendment. It was placed on the Senate calendar, but was passed over on January 24, 1944.
H. R. 3864 (Dimond) introduced December 17, 1943 and H. R. 3884 (Chenoweth) introduced December 20, 1943, are worded identically as the O'Mahoney bill. All are directed towards abolishing the power of the President to establish national monuments by proclamation.
The National Park Service believes that the operation of the Antiquities Act as a whole has been very successful and several Presidents utilizing the authority have carried out the purposes of the Act and have kept the number of monuments to a minimum. If enacted the Barrett-Robertson bills would in effect give State legislatures a veto power over the action of the President.
Postwar Planning
H. Res. 408 (Sabath) submitted January 25, 1944. Agreed to January 26. Resolved that there is here established — the Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Plan- ning to be composed of 12 members of the House of Representatives to investigate all matters relating to postwar economic policy and problems; to gather information, plans and suggestions from informed sources; to study the plans and suggestions received; to report to the Congress from time to time the results of findings made and conclusions reached. The following members of the House: Mr. Colmer, Mississippi, Chairman; Mr. Cooper, Tennessee; Mr. Thomason, Texas; Mr. Walter, Pennsylvania; Mr. Zimmer- man, Missouri; Mr. Voorhis, California; Mr. Murdock, Arizona; Mr. Lynch, New York; Mr. O'Brien, Illinois; Mr. Fogarty, Rhode Island; Mr. Fish, New York; Mr. Gifford, Massachusetts; Mr. Reece, Tennessee; Mr. Welch, California; Mr. Wolverton, N. J.; Mr. Hope, Kansas; Mr. Wolcott, Michigan; Mr. Dewey, Illinois. (The Senate estab- lished a Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Planning in February, 1943, which was reported in the Watch Service, April 1943 Planning and Civic Comment.)
A Quadripartite Agreement was reported on p. 850 of the Congressional Record, January 27, 1944, for the coordination of the planning of public works:
Procedure to insure cooperation in the preparation of reports on multiple-purjxvse
Projects.
To permit agencies of the Departments of War, Interior, and Agriculture and the Federal Power Commission to cooperate more completely in the preparation of reports on multiple-purpose projects and to correlate the results to the greatest practicable ex- tent, the following procedure is established: (there follows a lengthy plan for cooperation and a schedule which will avoid duplication of effort and facilitate the concurrent sub- mission of reports.) This was signed by E. Reybpld, Chief of Engineers; H. W. Bashore, Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation; E. H. Wiecking, Land Use Coordinator, Depart- ment of Agriculture; Leland Olds, Chairman, Federal Power Commission.
H. R. 1898 (Lynch) introduced Feb. 18, 1943. To provide for Postwar Planning. Hearings on this bill were held Nov. 22 and 29, but no action has been taken.
Hearings have been held by the House Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds
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Planning and Civic Comment
on the subject of postwar planning and various witnesses have been heard. It is expected to write a bill for postwar planning, upon the basis of their testimony.
An Executive Order, dated Oct. 4, 1943, by the President, on the Submission of Re- ports to Facilitate Budgeting Activities of the Federal Government, provides: In order to facilitate budgeting activities, all departments and establishments of the Executive Branch, now or hereafter authorized by law to plan, propose, undertake, or aid public works and improvement projects finances in whole or in part by the Federal Government, shall prepare and keep up-to-date, by means of at least an annual revision, carefully planned and realistic long-range programs of such projects.
Federal City
H. R. 3664 (Randolph) introduced Nov. 13, 1943. To establish a boundary line be- tween the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Favorably reported on Nov. 26, 1943, by the Committee on the District of Columbia and now awaiting action. This bill takes the place of H. R. 746-S. 19, former bills with the same titles.
Action by the APCA Board of Directors
Officers and members of the Executive Board of the American Planning and Civic Association, meeting in Washington, February 16, announce the reelection of the present officers of the Association to serve for the ensuing year. These ,are Frederic A. Delano of Washing- ton D. C., Chairman of the Board; Horace M. Albright of New York City, President; Samuel P. Wether- ill of Philadelphia, First Vice-Presi- dent; Richard Lieber of Indianapolis, Second Vice- President; Earle S. Draper of Washington D. C., Third Vice-President; C. F. Jacobsen of Washington D. C., Treasurer; and Harlean James, Executive Secretary.
Those who attended the meeting of the Board were: Frederic A. Delano, Horace M. Albright, Earle S. Draper, Alfred Bettman of Cin- cinnati, O., Harold S. Buttenheim of New York City, Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, 3d, Frederick Law Olmsted, Flavel Shurtleff, Counsel, of New York City, Harlean James, Execu- tive Secretary and Dora A. Padgett, librarian.
The following resolutions were adopted :
POSTWAR PLANNING
1. That the many problems re- sulting from war dislocations of population and permanent and tem- porary construction call for strength- ening of local planning agencies in every region in the United States. The tendency towards the recogni- tion of the economic necessity for local planning throughout the coun- try has resulted in a great number of proposed projects, public and pri- vate, but it is essential that these be integrated into sound, comprehen- sive plans of legally constituted local and regional planning agencies supplied with adequate appropria- tions. These principles apply to both urban and rural regions.
2. The Board eaffirms its belief of many years' standing that there should be a permanent national planning board, established by Act of Congress and supplied with adequate appropriations, and sug- gests that it might well take the following form: A joint board com- posed of representatives of the ma- jority and minority parties from the appropriate committees in both Houses of Congress together with
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Planning and Civic Comment
three or five citizens appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, with overlapping terms, to serve from administration to ad- ministration as a national clearing house on all land-, water- and re- source-use matters, so that public works and other projects involving resources at all levels of government may be based on sound economic premises and reconciled into a com- prehensive and consistent program. In the postwar period the Board be- lieves that such an agency will be indispensable to orderly procedure.
3. The Board has long advocated slum reclamation and now points out the desirability for compre- hensive urban redevelopment pro- grams in cities which may be stimu- lated by local, state and Federal legislation. The spreading blight in American cities imposes a heavy financial and social burden on the taxpayers and greatly limits the efficient functioning of the cities in their services to citizens.
4. The Board reaffirms its posi- tion that it is socially desirable that every family in the community have an opportunity to live in a decent home; that private enterprise be encouraged to do all that it can do to furnish housing to the commu- nity, but that public housing is nec- essary to take care of the lowest income groups.
5. The Board has deplored the use of billboards in various inap- propriate places during the war and pledges its best efforts to the re- moval of such outdoor advertising in the postwar period. The Board con- tinues its advocacy of comprehen- sive planning and control of road- sides in rural districts and protection
of residence neighborhoods, parks, parkways and public buildings from outdoor advertising in urban com- munities.
6. The Board commends the or- ganization of the Joint Committee on the National Capital and pledges its best efforts in the future as in the past for the development of the Federal City as a worthy capital of the Nation.
CONSERVATION
1. The Board congratulates the Secretary of the Interior and the National Park Service for the care- ful investigations of fact which they caused to be made in connection with the application of the War Pro- duction Board to cut spruce and other timber in the Olympic Na- tional Park and commends the War Production Board for withdrawing its application when it was put into possession of the information.
2. The Board is gratified that the President of the United States in 1943 issued a Presidential Procla- mation creating Jackson Hole Na- tional Monument as a part of a wise conservation program duly author- ized by Act of Congress, and ex- presses the hope that the pending bills to abolish the Monument will be defeated in Congress.
3. The Board deplores the various efforts through bills in Congress to repeal that part of the Lacey Na- tional Antiquities Act of 1906 which authorizes Presidents of the United States to create national monuments by executive order. The exceedingly creditable National Monument Sys- tem has been set up very largely through this method and the efforts
Continued on page 49
24
,v . v
" J.
^
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For thirty-eight years the Presidents of the United States, acting under the authority of the Lacey Antiquities Act, hailed as a great conservation measure, have established national monuments to pro- tect objects of historic or scientific interest on lands owned or con- trolled by the United States. In each case the President has reserved what was considered to be sufficient land to provide for the proper care and management of the objects to be preserved. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt have set apart a total of 85 national monu- ments under the authority of this Act.
The Congress, when it established the National Park Service in 1916, further amplified the purposes of the Antiquities Act by stating that the fundamental purpose of both national parks and national monuments is "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them un- impaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
The use of the Antiquities Act by the Presidents has saved for the people of the United States a remarkable series of natural and historic wonders, which have been visited by millions of Americans annually and which have unquestionably added to the cultural betterment of our Country. Measures for the welfare of the general public, however, are sometimes obstructed by highly organized minorities seeking special advantages. In such instances the public needs at least two strings to its bow. The prudent use of the Antiquities Act by the Presi- dents has proved to be a valuable supplement to the authority re- served by Congress.
Recently the President created the Jackson Hole National Monu- ment in Wyoming, which has been challenged by certain organized interests. As a result, there are now five bills pending in Congress to prevent the Presidents of the United States ever again from estab- lishing national monuments. The American Planning and Civic Association questions the wisdom of abolishing an Act which, over a period of nearly forty years, has worked well, merely because a differ- ence of opinion has arisen over a particular case. The Association recommends instead that the value of the Act be appraised in view of the national monument system as a whole. Accordingly, this issue of PARKS presents a cross-section of the national monument system as established by the Presidents of the United States, under the authority of the Antiquities Act.
Devils Tower, Wyoming, an ancient volcanic plug, {shown on the cover) was the first national monument created under the Antiquities Act.
Early in the history of the Act, Representative and Mrs. William Kent of California donated a beautiful grove of redwoods near San Francisco, which was established as Muir Woods National Monument {shown on the frontispiece}.
In that same year, the Olym- pic National Monument in the State of Washington {shown on these pages) was set apart under the authority of the An- tiquities Act to protect its ob- jects of scientific interest, in- cluding glacial phenomena, portions of the rain forest, and the native habitat of the Roose- velt elk. The area is now a part of the Olympic National Park.
Photograph by Ashahel Curtis
I
Also, in the early history of the Act, several archeological sites were reserved as national monuments, of which the Betatakin ruin in Arizona, shown above, is an example.
Although established at later dates, Castillo de San Marcos, the old Spanish fort at St. Augustine (upper right), and Fort Jefferson, Florida, typify We historical type of national monuments.
Scenic pictures, unless otherwise indi- cated, courtesy of the Department of the Interior.
A portion of the Grand Canyon was set apart as a national monu- ment in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. The President's authority to create the national monument was challenged and the case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled:
"The defendants insist that the monument reserve should be disregarded on the ground that there was no authority for its creation. To this we cannot assent. The act under which the President proceeded empowered him to establish reserves em-
bracing 'objects of historic or scientific interest.' The Grand Canyon . . . 'is an object of unusual scientific interest' . . . is regarded as one of the great natural wonders, and annually draws to its borders thousands of visitors."
In 1919 Congress changed the monument to a national park. The scene shown above is in the Grand Canyon National Monument, which was later established in 1932, adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park.
By the time Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 and fur- ther amplified the purpose of national parks and monuments, as previously quoted, the use of the Antiquities Act to reserve lands containing objects of his- toric and scientific interest was an estab- lished and accepted policy in public land conservation. In setting apart portions of the Grand Canyon or the Olympic moun- tains, obviously more land would be re-
quired than for Devils T ower or some archeological ruin.
In 1918, President Wilson created the Katmai National Monument, Alaska, which was enlarged by President Hoover in 1931 as a result of studies conducted by the National Geographic Society and other scientific organizations.
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and Mount Mageik in Katmai are shown on these pages.
Following the studies and recommendations of the Ecological Society of America, President Coolidge established Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska, which was enlarged by President
Roosevelt. The scenes at the left portray the snout of a receding glacier, the remnants of a forest that had been buried beneath glacial ice for untold thousands of years and are now exposed by the recession of the glacier, and the reestablishment of life around a small pool many years after glacial recession, in Glacier Bay National Monu- ment.
Below, is a scene in the little-known but fantasic Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, established by President Coolidge.
W ' -' **
Photograph by Franz Lipp
mmm
Death Valley National Monument, California, established by President Hoover. This is one of several monuments that are many times larger than the Jackson Hole. It is a magnifi- cent fantasia of sharp geologic delineations and ever-new contrasts. The stream tractor train, incongruous in the Death Valley setting, is a relic of the earlier mining era in the Valley.
m
y
Scenes in the glacier-carved valley of Jackson Hole. The rare trumpeter swan breeds in some of the small lakes in Jackson Hole.
Elk drift down through the monument to the elk refuge in winter.
State Park
California: The State Park Com- mission has entered into an agree- ment with the County of Los An- geles providing for county admin- istration of Will Rogers, Manhattan, and Santa Monica State Beaches. This is in accordance with the es- tablished policy that the State shall not operate directly properties re- ceiving principally local patronage.
The Division of Beaches and Parks reports : "The State Park Com- mission has gone on record as favor- ing a general plan of restoration for all of the historic monuments so that these may be restored to the best state of preservation and use- fulness before 1946, the beginning of the five-year series of California Centennial Celebrations."
_ ^ A
Indiana: It was reported in the October issue of "Outdoor Indiana" that 280,000 motorists used the State Highway Commission's 61 roadside parks during 1943. A survey revealed that on the average 27 cars stopped at an individual park on Sunday, that the cars averaged four passengers, and that the aver- age time spent in the park was 50 minutes per car.
Michigan: The acquisition of 100,- 000 acres of park and recreational
lands within a 100-mile radius of Detroit over a period of 5-7 years at a total cost of $8,375,000 is recom- mended by the Michigan Conser- vation Commission, in the attrac- tive 22 page report, "A Program to Provide Recreation Areas in South- eastern Michigan," issued recently by the Department of Conservation.
The report stresses: (1) recrea- tional facilities in this area are far less adequate than in most of the major metropolitan areas of the county; (2) there is a necessity for early acquisition to avoid excessive costs, and to put the State in a po- sition of readiness for a postwar development program to provide needed recreational opportunities for the two-thirds of its citizens who reside in the area; and (3) the lands acquired under this program, and the future development should be coordinated with the few existing State Parks, and the programs of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority and the various munici- palities in the area.
The Commission recommends that the maintenance and operation of the areas, when developed, should be defrayed in part by fees and charges for special services, such as parking, camping, golfing and bath- house facilities. This is a departure from the present policy governing
41
Planning and Civic Comment
the administration of Michigan State Parks.
tional facilities were developed by the CCC in 1940-42.
Minnesota: The pocket size book- let, "State Parks of Minnesota," just issued by the Division of State Parks, lists and describes in a man- ner convenient for reference pur- poses the various areas that com- prise the State Park System.
New Mexico: The State Park Commission has obtained from the War Department an easement deed for 1179 acres of land and also a certain portion of water area within the Conchas Dam and Reservoir project for State park purposes. The deed, which was executed by the Secretary of War on November 8, culminates several years of effort by the Commission in making available to the public the recreational bene- fits of this project. Limited recrea-
Texas: Frank D. Quinn, Execu- tive Secretary, Texas State Parks Board, has estimated that service men, their families and friends com- prised 40 percent of the 1943 attend- ance in Texas State Parks.
V. W. Flickinger, formerly with the Iowa State Conservation Com- mission, has been promoted and is now Captain, U. S. Army, stationed at Norfolk, Va.
James F. Evans, Director of State Parks, New York State Department of Conservation, was associated with Robert Moses in the prepara- tion of the report on planning in Portland, Oregon, entitled, "Port- land Improvement."
Wartime Use of Recreational Facilities
By DONALD B. ALEXANDER, Administrative Director, Connecticut State Park and Forest Commission
During these wartime days many problems confront the American people. Of first importance, of course, is the winning of the war. Next, undoubtedly, comes the food problem. After that, the chance for people to take advantage of existing opportunities for healthful, outdoor recreation unquestionably holds high- est priority in the scale of relative importance of current problems.
Our Armed Forces recognize the value of recreation for their mem- bers and they expend great efforts
and large sums of money to provide them with healthful and enjoyable opportunities to re-create themselves for the rigors of military activity. The soldier in foreign lands, the sailor on convoy duty, the Marine in the southwest Pacific are all afforded time off from duty, for the purpose of re-creating the man for the task at hand as well as for meritorious ser- vice rendered. Not only is such con- sideration for services rendered richly deserved but the job oj keeping the Armed Forces physically and men-
42
Planning and Civic Comment
tally fit /or action cannot be done un- less fatigue has been replaced by refreshment. Where possible, at large military and naval establish- ments, organized sports, varsity and intra-mural, are conducted under the best available supervision, with the finest equipment and with maximum participation. Such action certainly shows a real appreciation of the values to be gained. Transportation is made available for athletic teams to engage in competitions with teams from other units, often at consider- able distances. All of these things are essential since they tend to maintain the competitive and com- bative spirits of the soldiers and sailors, keeping them alert and in the best physical and mental con- dition. Such practices contribute materially to the superiority of our men.
Coming now to the industrial and other civilian workers, what do we find? We find that both men and women, under the ever increasing demands for expanded production are patriotically driving themselves to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. In many cases, both the father and mother are working un- der exhausting conditions, leaving the children to shift for themselves, without normal supervision. Thus we see the greatest of all institutions, the American home, being sorely tested in its efforts to continue in the high place which it assumes in our society. The American home will stand the test but it needs help. The following statement by J. Edgar Hoover, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States De- partment of Justice, clearly empha- sizes the need of recreational oppor-
tunities as a means of overcoming the ill effects of these conditions:
Our nation today is faced with the very serious responsibility of curbing crime among our young men and women before it becomes too firmly entrenched. Juvenile delinquency has been on a steady increase in many types of offenses since the United States entered the present war. With the national accent on securing an early vic- tory over the Axis, many of the peacetime barriers to lawlessness have been neglect- fully tabled for the duration. War, how- ever, demands not less but greater empha- sis upon wholesome programs designed to direct the talents and energies of youth into constructive channels. With everyone under a certain amount of mental and nervous strain due to wartime conditions, there is a very definite need for well super- vised recreational programs for young people.
Carefully planned sport activities not only give strength to the active bodies of boys and girls but encourage a spirit of fair play and that teamwork which is the very foundation of our society. Certainly sound recreational programs can play an effective part in developing a stronger and more secure America.
The needs of war having almost entirely eliminated the family's ability to travel any appreciable dis- tance by any method of transporta- tion but especially by private auto- mobile have caused a sharp reduc- tion in the number of people visiting parks and other recreational areas. As a direct result of these high pres- sure working conditions coupled with drastic limitations of recrea- tional possibilities, serious social casualties are occurring and increas- ing at an alarming rate. We are told by neurologists that rest alone will not conquer fatigue. Absenteeism, which causes one of the most serious variable factors in our ability to con- tinue large scale war production, juvenile delinquency, which can be directly attributed to the disintegra- tion of thousands of American homes, physical and mental diseases
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Planning and Civic Comment
and their rapid increase, brought on by the inability of workers to secure the proper and much needed relaxa- tion and recreation, are but a few of the more obvious results of this destructive partnership.
Factory workers, pressed to phe- nomenal increases over their ordi- nary producing capacity, become possessed of a psychology of speed. Adequate opportunities for slacken- ing the pace through healthful out- door recreation should be provided. People will use the limited commer- cial recreational possibilities, both good and bad, available to them in the cities. Mere transportation does not become a factor. Such high speed pursuits provide temporary relaxation and pleasant escape but if continued will serve only to in- crease the fatigue of the workers. Entirely aside from the moral effects upon the people is the serious physi- cal and mental enervation. There is no satisfactory substitute for Jresh air and sunshine. They provide the ten- sile strength for the endurance of the human machine. They produce men- tal stability and moral solidarity.
Federal, State and local park, for- est park and recreational agencies have, by and large, done a good job of providing opportunities to get out into the open for relaxation in sunshine and shade, to enjoy natural surroundings where time and care lose their importance, to bathe and swim in fresh and salt water, to hike through woods and fields, to fish in quiet lakes and roaring streams and to experience the pleasure of being able to do what they want to when, they want to. But of what value to the people are all of these fine facili- ties, with their capacity for unlimited
service, if they cannot be reached; if the workers are separated from them? Why cannot the industrial worker, the office worker, and all types of employees working at much higher than usual speed and over longer hours, be provided with appropriate and reasonable ways and means of securing a limited supply of the re- cuperative elements to be found in outdoor recreation? It is granted that this view is based upon the theory that it is possible to allocate equitably all available gasoline and rubber supplies and to prevent their misuse. People find it necessary to travel some distance to outlying rec- reational areas because there is serious lack of adequate local facili- ties in many congested places. Pol- lution of beaches and other recrea- tional water is most serious in the vicinity of such congested communi- ties. Recreational facilities are no longer a luxury but have become recognized as a vital factor, essential to the health and stability of the community as are schools, hospitals and utilities. Commenting on this subject recently, Glenwood J. Sher- rard, Chairman, Recreational De- velopment Committee, New Eng- land Council, stated:
The war has made many changes in the recreation picture. Not the least of these is the great change in the vacationist's point of view. The emphasis is no longer on "where can I enjoy myself the most?" but rather on "where can I find the rest and refreshment I need to build up my working efficiency and store up health and strength for the big push ahead."
Proprietors of New England recrea- tional and resort hotels and facilities are well aware of the opportunity which they are offered to aid in recharging the physical and mental energies of war workers, hard driven executives and government officials, workers in "non-essential" jobs who are doubling up on operations to keep civilian
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Planning and Civic Comment
industries functioning, and women and children who are adding volunteer war work to their regular tasks and chores. The New England recreational industry is pre- pared to operate in the face of manifold uncertainties and hazards with a view to providing so far as possible the pleasant surroundings, recreation and rest which play so vital a part in maintaining health and morale.
It is a sad commentary on the physical condition of the American public that at this time only six out of every twenty drafted males are able to meet the physical require- ment of the Armed Forces. I believe it is safe to venture the opinion that if a survey were made of the activi- ties engaged in by the successful six in their younger days practically every one of them would show that he had been brought up under condi- tions in which outdoor recreation in considerable quantity had been avail- able and engaged in. Conversely, the unsuccessful fourteen would very likely be found to be men who had either not had such opportunities or had not taken advantage of them. No reference is made here to the type of recreational activity exem- plified by participation in organized professional athletics or highly or- ganized varsity athletics, important as they are. On the other hand reference is directed at that type of activity which, before the war, was engaged in by increasing millions of people every year providing contact with the sunlight and fresh air of the out of doors for the most part in places not immediately adjacent to large concentrations of population. Unless some steps are taken to ameliorate this situation promptly by providing for minimum trans- portation facilities for legitimate recreation seekers, we can look for a
further reduction in the number of physically fit Americans to the ac- companiment of the rapid increase of social ills. The children must be given an opportunity to strengthen their bodies and acquire the proper mental attitudes through the healthy and broadening influence of outdoor recreation.
Wartime recreation problems im- pose an ever greater public responsi- bility than do such problems in peacetime. The American public has thought well enough of such activi- ties in peacetime to provide increas- ing opportunities of this sort. This is the result of deep-seated recogni- tion of the value of the parks. Why should we, therefore, in wartime, when the need is greater than ever before, shut the door in the faces of millions of people to whom such op- portunity for outdoor recreation would be a priceless boon. War is a stern, difficult and hazardous busi- ness and, to reiterate an earlier statement, the place of the Armed Forces is of course first. Unless the civilian public is permitted an op- portunity to reach recreational areas through some adjustment of trans- portation limitations, irreparable and increasing damage will be done and all the ills that the flesh is heir to will be visited upon the genera- tions to come.
So far no problem has been pre- sented to the American public which they have not at least attempted to solve, and very few indeed have there been which any would admit could not be solved. A vivid realiza- tion of the importance of the recrea- tional problem is, however, step number one. Step number two is the determination to do something about
Planning and Civic Comment
it and step number three is to insti- tute action leading toward a distri- bution of all available transportation facilities as reasonably and equitably as possible. The merits of outdoor recreational facilities are too sound and too generally appreciated to re- quire any defense but unless some means is found by which their in- tended purpose can be realized now,
when they are most vitally needed, the American people have worked and struggled toward the creation and use of a country-wide system of park and recreation facilities in vain. Not only are parks and recreational facilities important elements in the American life, but they alone can pro- vide the sinews of war to the civilians and the men and women of tomorrow.
County Zoning Regulations
By RUSSELL H. RILEY, Saint Louis, Mo.
The County Board of Supervisors at their December meeting adopted comprehensive zoning regulations for the unincorporated portions of Macon County, Illinois.
Decatur is the only large city in the county. Much urban growth has occurred around its corporate limits. Here, the zoning regulations are generally similar to the zoning within the city. There are several single- family districts, with the major dif- ferences between them being the yard and lot area regulations. The minimum lot area varies from 6000 square feet to one acre in these districts. The dominant portion of the county (546 of the total 577 square miles) is in an agricultural district, and the zoning will not inter- fere with normal farming activities.
The base maps and land-use sur- veys were prepared by the staff of the County Superintendent of High- ways. The work was directed and preliminary regulations prepared by the firm of Harland Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis. The Zoning Commission consisted of eight members from the County Board of Supervisors and the Super-
intendent of Highways. The Com- mission held many meetings to study the findings and the proposed regulations. It also held public hearings in each township.
The only serious objection pre- sented against the regulations was by the billboard interests, who op- posed the regulations prohibiting billboards in the agricultural dis- tricts. These interests were able to prevent the adoption of the regula- tions when they were first presented to the Board at its September meet- ing. The Zoning Commission, how- ever, immediately took its problem before the public, and thoroughly discussed the proposed regulations at a number of meetings of various civic organizations. The local news- papers also gave excellent support to the county zoning program. Through news stories and editorials they informed the public as to the type of regulations, the need and advantages that would be gained therefrom, and also clearly explained the selfishness of the opposition. As a result of this educational work, the regulations were adopted in Decem- ber by an overwhelming majority.
46
Recent Court Decisions
Compiled by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF
Urban Redevelopment Corporation
Law
There has been much question among lawyers of the validity of some of the provisions of this new legislation, and particularly of the section which grants to redevelop- ment companies the right of eminent domain. In this New York City case the Metropolitan Life Insur- ance Company's plan, known as Stuyvesant Town, to rebuild sev- eral blocks on the East Side of Man- hattan Island, was in court on an application to restrain the Board of Estimate from approving the plan. The lower court denied the applica- tion and this was affirmed without opinion by three judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The dissenting opinion of two judges which was confined to the issue of the validity of the grant of the right of eminent domain to a private corporation is of great in- terest in view of legislative pro- posals on the subject of redevelop- ment in several States.
The Constitution of New York State by amendment (Article 18, Section 2) grants the right of emi- nent domain "to any public corpora- tion and to any corporation regu- lated by law as to rents, profits, dividends and disposition of its property or franchises and engaged in providing housing facilities."
The dissenting judges were of the opinion that this article of the Con- stitution created a relation between
the grant of power and the regula tion of rents, profits, etc.; that such regulations must be enforced through- out the existence of the corporation since they were "the price specified to be paid for a power which is not ordinarily delegated to private cor- porations operated for private prof- it." They specifically found that under the provisions of the New York Redevelopment Corporation Law private companies were regu- lated as to rents, profits, etc., only if they accepted the benefit of tax exemption. Consequently the re- development companies could be freed from such regulation after twenty-five years, which was the life of the tax exemption, or by the simple expedient of relinquishing after a less period of years the bene- fit of tax exemption.
Murray v. LaGuardia et al. Appellate Division, Supreme Court of New York, July 2, 1943.
Junk Yards
The village of St. Johnsbury, Vt., passed an ordinance which pro- hibited the location of junk yards alongside of or in plain view of the public highway, and the court held that this was too sweeping a pro- hibition. It expressly recognized that the law might be undergoing a change, but kept to its rule against regulations primarily for aesthetic reasons.
Vermont Salvage Corp. v. Village of St. Johnsbury, Vt. Supreme Court, 34 Atl. 2nd. p. 188, Oct. 1943.
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Planning and Civic Comment
Zoning Procedure — Finality of Com- missions Decisions The Commissioners of Prince George's County, Md., acting as a district council under a zoning statute granted a petition for re- zoning and one week later rescinded their action and gave notice of a re- hearing. There was a petition for a writ to compel the Commission to abide by their original order on the theory that the commission was powerless to rescind. The court held that the order of the Com- mission amending the zoning regu- lation did not have the permanence of a court judgment or decree since the Commission was not judicial but legislative, and like a legislature they could undo and reconsider their action where there was no change in the status of the parties interested.
Dal Maso et al. v. County Commission- ers of Prince George's County, Md. Court of Appeals, 34 Atl. 2nd p. 464, Nov. 1943.
Zoning — Funeral Parlor
Where the plaintiff's property adjoins premises used for funeral services by the defendant corpora- tion in violation of the zoning or- dinance, he is entitled to an injunc- tion against that use since he shows special damage, and this right of the plaintiff is not affected by the fact that the municipal authorities had done nothing about the violation of the zoning ordinance.
Momeier v. John M. McAIister, Inc. So. Car. Supreme Court, 27 S. E. 2nd p. 504, Sept. 1943.
Zoning — City not liable for damages
due to litigation.
In January 1938 plaintiff was temporarily enjoined from erecting
a business building in a residence zone. In January 1940 this injunc- tion was finally dissolved in another proceeding on the ground that the zoning ordinance was unreasonable as to the plaintiff, since his lot was improperly put into a residence zone. It had no value as a residence lot and considerable value as a business lot.
In deciding that the plaintiff had no right of action for damages the court said that the city was merely acting in its governmental capacity in attempting to enforce its police power. The fact that the ordinance as applied to the plaintiff's property was determined to be unreasonable was immaterial. Otherwise a city would be compelled to enforce all its ordinances at its peril until their validity was judicially determined.
Ellis v. City of University Place, Texas Supreme Court, 175 S. W. 2nd p. 396, Nov. 24, 1943.
Zoning — Noncon/orming Use
The plaintiff conducted a dairy, which was a nonconforming use, and asked the board of appeals for a permit to build an addition six feet in width to house a scale. This would greatly expedite the weighing of the milk, which had been made necessary by a recent law. The application was denied. The court expressly found that the granting of this permit would have done no violence to the zoning ordinance, would not have depreciated values in the neighborhood, and would not have affected at all the interest of property owners; and yet it upheld the board of appeals' decision, say- ing that it could not substitute its judgment for that of the board and
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Planning and Civic Comment
that in view of the ultimate purpose of zoning to restrict the uses of land in certain localities and to discourage encroachments of nonconforming uses inconsistent with those per-
mitted, it could not find the court of appeals' decision arbitrary.
Jack Bayer v. Zoning Board of Hart- ford, Conn. Court of Common Pleas, 11 Conn. Supp. p. 476 March 1943.
Short Course in City and Regional Planning at M. I. T.
The City Planning Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology is sponsoring a short training course in City and Regional Plan- ning during the spring of 1944, in addition to its regular program of undergraduate and graduate work. The training course, which will be open to men and women with pro- fessional experience in architecture, landscape architecture, civil engi- neering, political science, or public administration, will commence on Monday, April 3, 1944.
The fee for the training course is $125, payable at the time of regis- tration, and participants will be en- rolled as special students at M. I. T. The course will not be offered if the registration is less than ten.
Further information concerning admission requirements, lecture schedule, etc., may be obtained from Professor Frederick J. Adams, Di- vision of City Planning, Massachu- setts Institute of Technology, Cam- bridge 39, Massachusetts.
Action by the APCA Board of Directors
Continued from page 24
to limit the creation of national monuments in the future stem from groups who desire to use public lands for private purposes.
4. The Board dep'ores the recom- mendations of the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys that considerable areas in the national parks and monuments be trans- ferred to other government agencies, since such transfers would be made with the avowed purpose of permit- ting private exploitation of these publicly owned lands set aside for preservation and enjoyment by the public.
5. The Board reaffirms its stand of 17 years ago in opposition to the development of power on the Poto- mac which would affect the natural river scenery from Great Falls to the Federal City. The Board gave
active support to the stand of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission that the best use of the River and its shores in the vicinity of Washington is in the develop- ment of the George Washington Parkway and now submits that the decision of Congress to make funds available for this purpose was in effect an approval of the plan. The Board believes that no new reasons have occurred for changing this policy of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and Con- gress. The statement of Ambassador Bryce to the effect that the river setting of Washington was unequal- led by any other capital in the world and that of course the Nation would protect it, is as true today as the day it was uttered.
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Tomorrow's London
By JOHN SUMMERSON Deputy Director, the National Buildings Record, London, England
A great plan has been prepared for the development of London after the war. Although some may think this news of purely local interest, I be- lieve it to be far more than that. The nature of the plan and the circum- stances in which it has been made are symptomatic of a new outlook in Britain, which needs to be under- stood by men and women all over the world.
This plan has been prepared at the instance of the London County Council, the governing body of the County of London. Its authors are the Council's architect, J. H. For- shaw, and the famous town-planner, Patrick Abercrombie. For some years, these men have been among the most progressive exponents of architecture and planning but their opportunities have been limited. Mr. Forshaw has done remarkable work in the provision of welfare buildings for miners throughout the industrial areas of the country. Pro- fessor Abercrombie has conducted schools of town-planning in Liver- pool and London and prepared many regional surveys of great value. Their partnership in the task of providing a plan for London under the powerful authority of the Lon- don County Council, has been en- thusiastically acclaimed by their professional colleagues — especially the younger men whose careers have been interrupted by the war, who look anxiously for wise leadership in the critical beginnings of the period of reconstruction.
Though it embodies the study and thought of some twenty-five years, the plan has sprung into existence quickly. There is much in it which derives from the work of continental planners. One notes the influence of housing achieve- ments in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hilversum, to take three ex- amples, and of the pioneer work of many great names in continental architecture. On the other hand one is struck by the complete under- standing of the special problems — material and psychological — of Lon- don. Perhaps you have visited London — perhaps not. Even if you have, you will have little idea of the vast area it covers, of the inter- minable spread, without order or design, of speculative suburban streets. Perhaps you will have some acquaintance with the inner sub- urbs, built, say 50 or 100 years ago, and now obsolete, decrepit and depressing. What you will, in any case, have realized, if you have spent but one day in London, is that the gigantic outward spread has created, at the center, perhaps the greatest traffic problem in the his- tory of cities.
The planners of the new London have seen that two major questions are involved — the living question and the traffic question. They are interdependent. They must be dealt with together. Before the war a plan was made to deal with traffic; but this was not good enough, for it ignored living conditions. The new
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plan introduces a solution of the traffic problem which illuminates and simplifies the living problem. It works like this. A great network of traffic arteries is envisaged, some of them encircling London. Some passing through tunnels in the center. This network is laid out in such a way that the natural "neigh- borhoods" of London, which have formed their individuality in the course of centuries, are preserved as self-contained organisms in the inter- stices of the traffic network. One must appreciate the very real im- portance of not disturbing the identity of these "neighborhoods." Londoners have a strong liking for and loyalty to, their own locality. During the air-raids this local loyalty was tested and proved. A planner who ignores the human stresses and strains in the organic structure of his city is courting disaster.
Therefore, the "neighborhoods" of London are not merely preserved, but their identity is emphasized. Of course, they need rebuilding. Many of them were terribly battered during the air-raids and today you can walk through whole streets of homes rendered uninhabitable by bombing as well as across open spaces where the homes have been entirely destroyed. But bomb-dam- age is not the fundamental reason why re-planning is necessary. More important is the fact that the lay- out of these streets, as indeed were the houses themselves, was already obsolete before the war.
In the re-planning of these "neigh- borhoods" necessary elements are houses, apartments, schools, churches, playgrounds, parks, health -clinics
and community centers. It will be necessary to retain for the time being buildings which are com- paratively modern and reasonably efficient, but these are not allowed to interfere with the broad and gen- erous conception of the lay-out as a whole. An important characteristic of the plan is that both apartments and houses are introduced in each neighborhood. The English are re- luctant apartment-dwellers and all classes have an obstinate prejudice in favor of a house with a patch of garden in front of it or behind it. Therefore, as many small houses as possible are included in the plan.
You will see that the emphasis, in the new plan for London, is on the re-organization of these districts where the great majority of Lon- doners live, rather than on grandiose and impressive rebuildings in the center of the capital. It is interest- ing, and, from the point of view of us architects, most satisfactory, to note the approval which has been given to this tendency. Some time ago, the Royal Academy produced a plan for the reconstruction of the Central area of London in which architec- tural effect was the principal aim. This plan was greeted with strong criticism on all sides and a phrase — "vista-mongers" — was coined to de- scribe the kind of planner whose idea is the wide uniform boulevard with a classical portico at the end of it.
The London County Council's man is not the work of "vista- plongers"; it is both practical and popular. It symbolizes the general acceptance of ideas which, before the war, were struggling to win the barest consideration in official quar- ters. Which is why I said at the
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beginning of this article that the plan is of something more than local interest. Up to 1938 the need for re-housing Britain's industrial pop- ulation was considered merely as a dry and unfortunate necessity. To- day, the idea of broad, imaginative planning has caught hold of people and I do not think anything can now stop its fruition.
The principle on which the plan is based is the clarification of the components of the great urban or- ganism as a whole and the redevelop- ment of each component according to its special needs. This principle applies not only to the suburban tracts, but also to Central London. Here, however, the "neighborhoods" are of a different character. For in- stance, the area in which the London University buildings stand, imme- diately adjoining the British Mu- seum, has developed naturally as London's educational center. The planners have therefore provided for the dedication of this area as a "University precinct," ensuring its seclusion from through traffic and ensuring, too, that the University shall be able to develop without col- liding with some other irrelevant form of development, such as office buildings or industries. Much the same applies to the governmental center at Westminster where mag- nificent architectural opportunities present themselves. But these, it is rightly urged, are not of the most pressing importance. They can bide their time. Building on a large scale must start as soon as hostilities have ceased, and this building must meet the most pressing need — the re- housing of the people. This could
be begun at once in the devastated and obsolescent areas. Later on, when the inevitable housing crisis is past, the inner parts of the plan can in turn be put into execution.
It is calculated that to execute the whole plan would require about fifty years. But essential parts of the plan, including the main traffic ar- teries, could be finished in a very short time. No city is ever "com- plete," and no intelligent planner would ever seek finality for his work. The essential thing is that all building and rebuilding in London should promote the interests of the London community and the nation as a whole, and that all future de- velopment should conform with a logical and creative master-plan — always flexible, always in touch with the real needs of the times.
There remain the tremendous questions of cost and the control of land. These loom up, as they have always done, as the most formidable obstacles to effective planning. But they cannot remain insuperable when the objectives are, and there is no mistaking the trend of opinion in favor of bold and decisive policies to take effect as soon as Britain's enemies have been beaten.
I have said that the plan for London embodies much that Bri- tain's architects have learned from their Continental neighbors in the past twenty years. I believe that it will soon be Britain's turn to set an example by the application of this knowledge on a larger scale than has yet been attempted. The stage is being set for a great episode in the history of town-planning.
52
Rochester's Planning Problem
By LUCIA VALENTINE, Rochester, N. Y. Adapted from a Speech Given Before the Association of American Bankers, Rochester ; N. Y.
The Postwar Planning Committee of Rochester, N. Y., could find no slick, ready-made answers to the problems of urban growth. But it seemed clear right away that with- out some forethought on the develop- ment of the area, a postwar boom in fresh suburban housing, or of land speculation within the city limits, or of unrelated public works projects, could only heighten the existing chaos. It was equally clear to the Committee that such forethought should be taken officially; that no plan of direction created by a citizen committee alone would be expert enough, comprehensive enough, or have sufficient authority to achieve the objectives. It seemed as if noth- ing short of official recognition of our growing pains, and strong coordi- nated official action in terms of plans for Rochester and Monroe County could be helpful at this stage.
Were there no accredited officials to whom we might turn for help? Yes. Rochester has a City Planning Board. What is its status?
It consists of three citizens and two city officials. They are all men of ability and calibre. The citizens are Mr. William Kaelber, Chairman, Mr. George Hawks, and Mr. Howard Gather. The City Officials are Mr. Henry Howe, City Engineer, and Mr. Harold McFarlin, Commis- sioner of the Department of Com- merce. These five men (three volun- teers and two paid officials) consti- tute the City Planning Board of
Rochester. The Planning Board has a very small working staff headed by Mr. Wagener, who is called Director of Planning. However, the staff is under the Department of Commerce and definitely owes allegiance to the head of that department.
From a citizen point of view this unequally divided allegiance of the planning staff between its Board and a city department is the chief defect in its organization. Planning is a policy-making function of govern- ment. Within each city department there will be policy makers for that particular department. But as city planning concerns the welfare and future development of the whole city, it follows that it does not owe allegiance to one city department but should be directly responsible to the City Council, and its Chairman, the Mayor.
I do not wish to dwell too long on this point which, important as it may be, is a somewhat technical matter of checks and balances in municipal government. Nor do I wish to dis- cuss the status of official county planning which also needs examina- tion and revision. Both matters are obvious and can be remedied quickly on citizen demand. I wish rather to speak of some other essentials of a sound, active planning board, be it a city planning board or a county planning board.
The first essential is that there be citizen membership in the board to translate and to popularize the work
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of the plan, as well as to bring the planners into direct contact with representatives of the people for whom they are planning. Rochester has citizen members but not enough to carry the work load. The city board needs expanding. The County has no citizen board at all.
The second essential is that suffi- cient staff and funds should be made available to the Director of Plan- ning, city or County, in his difficult and complex work. His first concern is with the Master Plan. Before I am in this game much longer I hope to meet a master plan personally! As yet I can only describe it to you by hearsay. It consists of maps of course. It consists of economic, so- cial, and financial appraisals of the community, too. It is an over-all, comprehensive framework, a large pattern, the policy, if you will of city-county growth. It is a flexible instrument. In the main it will not change substantially, or if it does, very slowly indeed. In detail it will constantly change to meet new in- ventions, new economic pressures, new financial developments. It is a coordination of the many plans which, under our present procedure, are batted up piecemeal by various city and county departments for public consideration. Once we have acquired such a plan here, any authorization to build contrary to the principle of the master plan would have to be granted by the City Council. Thus the plan be- comes a check on non-conforming land uses.
A recent number of Fortune has an article on city planning which likens the master plan to military strategy. I quote you a portion of it.
"Urban planners have observed over the years a great many of the unfortunate results of the piecemeal approach to urban problems, such as things built in the wrong places, im- provements in one area that backfire on another area, projects that aggra- vate already severe traffic conges- tion. . . . (Planners also point out) that the impression that a fully de- tailed master plan must be com- pleted for a whole metropolitan re- gion before a shovel can move, is erroneous. A more accurate concep- tion on metropolitan planning, they say, is obtainable from the analogy of strategy and tactics in warfare. Only through tactics can battles be won; but unless tactics are fitted into a strategic plan embracing at least the outlines of the whole cam- paign, there will be slight chance of winning the war."
To create a Master Plan is the function of the planning board, task enough in itself. But in addition to creating the Master Plan, the Board must constantly sell it to the public. A Master Plan is surely a lovely thing in its city or county drafting room, and must be a source of pride to its fond creators! But it is a life- less cause if it is not publicly under- stood, if it is not referred to and de- ferred to in all matters of city devel- opment. It must be publicized.
This is where planning boards like Chicago's have scored notable suc- cesses. Is there a question of post- war rehabilitation of land in Chicago? Out comes the Planning Commission with an admirable and topical book- let, not too technical for the average citizen to read. In it are found areas of possible rehabilitation with sug- gested plans for their development,
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studies of existing city services in those areas, estimates of land costs and suggested local and state legis- lation in regard to subdividing, municipal land control, and land assembly. The book has a wide dis- tribution, not only in Chicago where interested groups of private enter- prise have already begun to lobby for the needed improvement in legis- lation, but in other towns as well — ours for instance — where this little booklet is a sharp reminder of our own undeveloped potentialities. Planning Boards must have the fi- nancial means to make this type of special study and publication.
A third essential to good planning is coordination between city and county planning boards in order that plans for city and county may syn- chronize. Coordination between planning and zoning boards is like- wise essential in order that the principles of the Master Plan be implemented and upheld.
The last and greatest essential to good planning is citizen interest. Without it the neatest organization and the best laid plans will come to nothing. We have a case in point, in Rochester. In 1931 Rochester bought at considerable expense the services of a distinguished and competent city planner who produced a Master Plan in blueprint form for Rochester. The fact that modern Master Plans no longer come quite so neatly in
that kind of packet is aside from the point. The plans represented hard study and sensible suggestions for Rochester's development. They would not have been difficult to adapt to the changes that have in- evitably taken place since Mr. Bar- tholomew's day. But having been bought they were laid away in official cubby holes. They are almost hopelessly out of date. Only a por- tion of the Bartholomew plan, barely surviving public indifference, has lived to mark the spot where plan- ning on a generous scale for Roches- ter, fell.
This is a cursory view of the plan- ning situation in Rochester and Monroe County as the Committee on the Works Reserve finds it, to- gether with a few observations on more ideal planning procedures. To remedy the situation and to meet an increasingly heavy postwar load, the Committee felt that both city and county should ready themselves now by taking the necessary steps in cor- recting defects of organization; that both city and county boards should actively cooperate in their plans to avoid conflicts at the boundaries where city and county meet, and above all that the Rochester public must be made aware of the impor- tance of land planning in order that its postwar plans for civic improve- ment have meaning and coherence.
The 1943 AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ANNUAL will soon be ready for distribution. Its theme is postwar planning and conservation. The proceed- ings of the Omaha Citizens Conference on Planning are included.
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Press Contributes to Planning and Civic Improvement*
The Dallas Morning News
By BARRY BISHOP
Among the functions of a good newspaper, none can be of greater importance than working for a bet- ter community.
Through its columns of current news and editorial comment, through the influence of its officers and em- ployees, a newspaper can be a great civic asset. In many cases it can be the leading spirit in community en- deavor and often has to assume that role to get needed things done.
To those who know The Dallas Morning News and have followed its work, it is no new statement, no boasting comment, therefore, to say that this organization — the oldest business institution in Texas — al- ways has been found in the front of interesting movements for civic progress of the city and state.
Today, Dallas is well under way with a Master Plan and Postwar Planning Program. Mayor Woodall Rodgers, on more than one occasion, has given great credit to The News and to G. B. Dealey, chairman of the board, for this work being under way
The attitude of constant interest in civic improvement has been ex- pressed forcibly many years. Count- less columns of editorial, straight news reports and interpretive writ- ing have been devoted to this topic for well over a half century.
*At the suggestion of the Chairman of the Board of the American Planning and Civic Association, Mr. Frederic A. Delano, PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT, is presenting a series of articles on the part which the press has played in promoting plan- ning and civic improvement. Dallas leads the list^
In May, 1899, The News was in- strumental in organizing the Cleaner Dallas League. Its purpose, im- provement in sanitary conditions, was evident from its title and the League accomplished great things for a growing city.
Again, on Dec. 14, 1902, The News was among the leading factors in organizing the Civic Improvement League. Its object was to "unite the efforts of all citizens who wanted to make Dallas a better place in which to live." Its general purpose was "to create public sentiment in favor of a better administration of municipal affairs, without in any way invading the domain of politics."
In the summer of 1909 a City Planning Congress was held in Wash- ington, and the staff correspondent of The News there, Mr. Otto Prae- ger, was assigned to write a series on important features of the proceed- ings. Copies of these articles, which appeared in July, 1909, were dis- tributed widely to encourage sup- port for civic improvement here.
On May 16, 1909, The News com- mended the city plan idea and sug- gested that larger cities of Texas should adopt it. Beginning Jan. 1, 1910, The News actively espoused the cause. The late Tom Finty, Jr., of The News wrote a series on The Replanning of a City. Other inter- esting articles, editorials and illus- trations followed.
On Jan. 28, 1910, officers and di-
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rectors of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce were approached and agreed to support the idea. J. Horace McFarland, president of the Ameri- can Civic Association, was brought to Dallas for an address as a result.
After that memorable event, again through the leadership of The News, the Dallas City Plan and Develop- ment League was organized and soon it was decided to invite Mr. George E. Kessler, the well-known city planning expert, to visit Dallas. He arrived on May 23, 1910, develop- ments were rapid and decision to engage him to make a city plan for Dallas was made that day.
The News continued to support the planning program actively after Mr. Kessler did his work. Great en- couragement was given the special reports made on various phases of Dallas' development. This was a big factor in having other studies made by outstanding authorities in special fields, such as James H. Fuertes of New York City, who was engaged in December, 1911, to design a modern filtration plant. In 1912, Mr. Fuer- tes also was employed to plan a sewage disposal plant for Dallas.
Interest which The News has en- couraged constantly was a big factor in preparation of the Ulrickson Pro- gram in 1927 to bring planning up to date for the city.
With unflagging zeal, The News again took a leading part in urging preparation of a modern plan for the city in recent years. That, to a great extent, resulted in the employment of Hare & Hare, Kansas City plan- ners, to develop a Master Plan for the park system in 1941-42.
Interest in planning lagged in 1942 due to the war. The News renewed
its support of the movement and impressed on municipal officials the necessity of planning now for the postwar period. Largely due to The News and particularly to Mr. Dealey, officials reversed an earlier decision to close the engineering division of the Commission for the duration.
City officials then were encour- aged to visit a few key cities to see what they were doing. Results of this tour to Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville and Memphis were pub- licized widely. A series of ten articles on planning followed, then the stories were republished in pamphlet form and are still being distributed in response to calls.
As a result of this, today finds Dallas with Harland Bartholomew of St. Louis supervising preparation of a Master Plan. Dallas also has services of Hare & Hare for the park features, and many other municipal and civic agencies are highly inter- ested in the program.
Recently, also, The News pub- lished a series on how smaller com- munities can go about the job of planning that has attracted wide- spread attention. This series gave particular attention to problems of towns and small cities.
So, today, Dallas is getting na- tional recognition for planning. It could have been a different story, however, had it not been for The News and particularly the constant support of Mr. Dealey. It is, to a high degree, a story of how an alert and progressive newspaper can be of real service to a community.
But The News has not sought any special credit for its accomplishment and will feel well repaid if the plan is supported by the people.
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Eliel Saarinen's The City Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future
A Critical Review
By ERIC F. MENKE, Washington, D. C.
The city is being rediscovered these days, not only by planners and other professionals in offices but by the man in the street and the market place. The problems of families and homes have multiplied rather than diminished with progress in growing cities and many people wonder about it. War has added to this impor- tance of the cities, playing leading parts in production for the arsenal of Democracy. We realize that on the wellbeing of towns, cities and their related areas — the nerve cen- ter, if you will — the Nation depends.
Mr. Eliel Saarinen, an architect of brilliant accomplishments, has chosen a very good time to present to the public his vast experience and the working of his mind on "The City, Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future." This is a good title for a book written in a fresh and personal style.
We learn a great deal about the medieval city, its logic of pattern, its unity of form and mystery. There is no doubt that the Middle Ages brought forth towns and a few cities which impress with the fitness for the needs of the people, of course within the limits of the knowledge and materials available at the time.
Some illustrations support the text on the medieval city. A map of Malines, a fortified little town in Flanders and a section through the sartorius muscle have a remarkable similarity. A microscopic view of "slum growth" in cell tissue shows
that all living matter organizes alike and occasionally drifts into the same errors. This interesting, although somewhat fanciful comparison, may not be convincing to everyone.
It is emphasized that many re- sults of the past were arrived at sub- consciously by what is called "med- ieval creative sensitiveness." But do we really need to feel that the burghers of a medieval town had any more "form sensitiveness" or any of the other capacities, sub- conscious and otherwise, than we have? Perhaps it is more a matter of change in values and interests. Our world of today is crowded with stimuli, forms and fancies unknown before: the automobile, the radio, search lights, superhighways and the air filled with roaring, streamlined planes. These are many and won- derful forms. Still, it is entirely true and surely regrettable that city design has been largely left behind, if not left out, at least until recently. The latest designs of fashion may impress the public more than the ingenious plan of a building, park- way or a sewage disposal plant, important though it is to urban living. Who is to blame for this? Complexity of modern life, high specialization in our work and also interests and rapid changes in our social and cultural scene may par- tially explain, although by no means justify our attitude towards civic developments.
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In contrast to his admiration for the Middle Ages, Mr. Saarinen feels that the period known and referred to as the Renaissance was sterile in urban design and often ruinous. Formal monumentality and stylistic approaches bring about a condition of which he says: "The sense for the most comprehensive art of man was lost."
From then on the embers were burning slowly until the emergence of Haussmann, the grandiose Pari- sian who startled the world, and Camillo Sitte, who called town plan- ning back to nature in Vienna, 1889. The influence of this remarkable personality on our author is notice- able throughout the book in its philosophical and ethical approach. Like Sitte, Saarinen is a prophet for the city. He wants it to be a better place to live, not only with comfort, but with beauty and harmony.
As an artist, a master builder and a man who has lived and learned — and last but not least taught — he speaks to us straight from the heart. He tells us how the city of the future is to emerge and how the possi- bilities and impossibilities of today will be transmuted into the realities of tomorrow. There will be many obstacles : financial, legal and human inertia. But determined will and an enlightened program will find ways and means with public support. One of the obstacles would be the scheme to offer property owners, badly lo- cated, other and better located properties to choose from for a trade- in. To give people and real estate the mobility of chips on a checker
board might be very tempting, but it would be very hard to keep within reasonable bounds, and let us keep in mind that people have roots, sentiments, habits and customs, often stronger than the appeal of material improvements and the promise of a better life. This was illustrated after the great fire in London and recently again by the Mexican farmer who resisted "re- location" although a volcano erupted on his land and threatened to swal- low up his homestead and pos- sessions. The change of land and improvements is hardly comparable to the relatively small problem in- volved in exchanging clothes or furniture.
There may be another approach to overcome the difficulty. Money, after all, is still a convenient medium of exchange although frequently misunderstood and abused. The person involved might get cash com- pensation and then the choice of purchasing with assurance of no further disturbance by request to move again for a reasonable time to come, except under extreme un- forseen emergencies.
We see there is plenty of food for thought and discussion which Mr. Saarinen provokes and welcomes. He has fired a broadside for the cause of the city. Many echoes will be heard in spoken and written words.
The mist is rising slowly and we behold a shining vision: the city of the future, a great task which chal- lenges our soul. In spite of many hardships, it promises high reward.
59
For Better Roadsides
By FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Counsel, APCA
The announcement of a postwar program for a national network of Federal highways to cost several bil- lion dollars should rouse all lovers of unspoiled highways to thought and action. What kind of highways will represent America in the postwar era?
Apparently military necessity as well as safety has dictated that these all-purpose routes will be limited access ways and will detour urban centers. Opposing traffic streams will be divided by a reservation of adequate width. How will the efficiency of these traffic lanes be kept high and the right use of high- way frontages be assured?
At least three essentials are sug- gested for incorporation in the na- tional highway program:
1. To provide protective strips between highway lanes and private land, no right- of-way should be less than 500 feet wide, as a general minimum.
2. On these buffer strips such commer- cial establishments as are necessary to serve highway travel could be built, de- signed and operated by a Federal agency, or if leased to a private operator, carefully drawn stipulations as to maintenance should be inserted in the lease.
Some of these objectives are sup- ported in the Interregional Highway Report of the National Interregional Highway Committee outlining a system of National Highways, now being printed.
The New Jersey Highway De- partment has written another chap- ter in cooperative action for roadside improvement. Instead of adopting a
program and putting it into opera- tion as a departmental activity, it used the sagacious tactic of referring method and program to a section of its widely representative advisory Committee. Called to Trenton on one of the last days of 1943, the com- mittee interrupted its discussion by a tour of highway route 29 from the Delaware River at Lambertville to the Newark metropolitan area. This highway was found to present all the roadside problems; several miles al- most unspoiled and park-like in character, several miles apparently beyond redemption.
The committee has informally agreed that it would be desirable in any program of roadside improve- ment:
1. To determine the essentially com- mercial areas and perhaps to post them.
2. To seek to limit future commercial locations to these areas and to induce the removal of existing commercial locations, especially billboards from non-commercial areas.
3. To seek an improvement in the de- sign of signs on commercial establishments and a reduction in their number.
4. To seek improvement in the appear- ance of all places of business by cleaning up and landscaping.
Other suggestions which are being considered by the committee and by the Department are:
1. Include all of route 29 in the program instead of a limited portion. The protec- tive measures are as essential for the un- spoiled sections of the highway as the remedial measures for the rest of the road.
2. Establish a set-back for all business places — say 50 feet from the right-of-way line.
3. Establish set-back for all signs, vary- ing in accordance with the area of display space, no sign to be nearer the highway than 50 feet.
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4. Consider the formation of a "Route 29 Association" for the improvement of roadside conditions.
The Highway Department appre- ciates that the real test of coopera- tion is ahead. It is prepared for the routine wartime excuses for non- action, and will suggest ways of over- coming the great handicap of labor shortage. Incidentally, Mr. Freder- ick S. Chase of Waterbury, Con- necticut, has adopted a plan for the protection of the rural roadside which works. He and his neighbors have prohibited the commercial use of their lands by a covenant that runs with the land, and is binding on their heirs and all successors in title.
This adventure in cooperation in New Jersey will be watched by the "friends of the road" in other States, and nowhere more keenly than in Pennsylvania, where a somewhat different undertaking is reported a failure by the Roadside Council of that State. Whatever its accomp- lishments in roadside improvement there is abundant evidence of a sin- cere desire among the N. J. coopera- tors to make the program go, and certainly there will be educational value in the joint effort of so many and so varied state organizations.
Two interesting contributions sponsored by the N. J. Roadside Council are the state-wide roadside improvement contest in which the women's clubs and the garden clubs of the State are cooperating, and a brief course of lectures on the law, practice and progress in roadside development.
The contest is primarily for gar- den clubs and women's clubs, but they may sponsor local contests and submit the result as their entry in
the state contest. The course will consist of five lectures covering the following topics :
Roads and Roadsides are together an important part of the program of com- munity and regional planning.
A discussion of the elements of the plan- ning program and what it has accomplished.
Postwar planning.
Planning for circulation; the local street in its relation to traffic.
Parking; county and state highways; freeways and parkways. The roadside as part of the highway corridor; regulating the use of the roadside, i.e., set-back laws, billboard laws and junk yard laws; zoning hs a method of control; the limited access principle; what may be accomplished by a voluntary cooperative program.
The course of five lectures extends from Thursday, February 10, to March 9 on successive Thursdays, from 3.30 to 5 o'clock in Room 1103, Kinney Building, Newark, N. J., conducted by the writer.
Public Control of Highway Ac- cess and Roadside Development by David R. Levin, Transportation Economist of the Public Roads Ad- ministration, is a recent publication of great value as a reference on the technique of highway access con- trol. The Appendix includes limited access roadside development and freeway legislation of several States.
A SOUND PLAN FOR POSTWAR ROADS . . . AND JOBS, 63 pages. American Road Builders' Association, Washington, D. C.
HERE'S How You CAN HELP REDEVELOP YOUR CITY WITH MODERN HIGHWAYS, 32 pages. U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C.
Two excellent briefs for road building as an essential postwar activity, each quite different in the approach to the subject and ad- dressed to a different reading public. The American Road Builders dis-
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cuss five basic economic factors in a national postwar planning pro- gram— employment, national in- come, idle money, tax income, and national debt, — show that the "eco- nomic structure of the country and the pyramid of some seven million direct jobs" rest on the highways, and prove the need of great in- creases in the mileage of new roads and road replacements for the State, for interregional communica- tion, for metropolitan areas, and for the streets and roads in cities and counties.
The Conference Committee on
Urban Problems sponsored by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce is pre- paring a series of reports on post- war urban problems, of which the report on highways is the first to be published. It is addressed to the "citizens and leaders in the com- munity," and is consequently more popular in style. Its graphic pre- sentation and profuse illustrations are commendable features. Al- though the emphasis is on trans- portation, the "steps to take in your city" are the usually recom- mended procedure for a complete planning program.
IN MEMORIAM
FREDERICK C. ZOBEL
1873-1943
We regret to announce the death for Town and Country Planning was on November 18, 1943, of Frederick held in Vienna.
C. Zobel, well-known architect of New York City, a life member of the APCA. Born in Breslau, Ger- many, he came to the U. S. in 1880 and was naturalized in 1904.
Mr. Zobel was one of a group of members of the former ACA who participated in the two-month tour of European countries in 1926, spon- sored by the Association at the time the International Federation
Mr. Zobel acted as the official representative of the APCA on a Sectional Technical Committee of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
His interest and support of the work of the Association over a long period of years and his interest in national parks and community prob- lems will be greatly missed.
J. MERLE BENNETT
1896-1943
Bennett, Director of den, Michigan, in 1896 and gradu-
J. Merle Forestry and Parks for the Wayne County Road Commission, Detroit, Michigan, suddenly passed away on October 31, 1943, following a short illness. He was a pioneer and one of the best known men in the United States in roadside development.
J. M. Bennett was born in Cam-
ated from the Forestry Department of Michigan State College in 1919. After graduation he was employed by the State Highway Department in Port Huron, Michigan, from 1919 to 1922. In 1922 Wayne County, Michigan, decided to inaugurate a roadside development program to
62
Planning and Civic Comment
improve the roadsides along the county roads and J. M. Bennett was selected to initiate and direct the pioneer work in Wayne County. Today, due to his books and work in Wayne County, roadside develop- ment work has been adopted by many public road organizations throughout the United States.
Mr. Bennett was Superintendent of Wayne County Parks for the Road Commission. He drew up the preliminary plans in 1924 calling for
16,000 acres to be acquired in parks and parkways.
His two books, "Roadside Devel- opment'* and "Roadsides, The Front Door of the Nation/' are the out- standing works on this subject and have been the text that has guided many organizations in this field. He wrote many articles for the leading magazines on arboriculture.
In the passing of J. M. Bennett the arboricultural profession has lost an outstanding man.
Recent Publications
Compiled by Katharine McNamara, Librarian of the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANNING OFFICIALS. Organization for metropolitan planning, four proposals for regional councils. Chicago, The Society, 1943. 73 pages. Charts. Price $1.00.
. Planning legislation, 1943.
State planning and post-war planning, public works reserves, urban redevelop- ment, zoning, etc. Chicago, The Society, 1943. 22 pages. Mimeographed. (Gen- eral no. 39.) Price 50 cents.
BRUCE, ALFRED, and HAROLD SANDBANK. A history of prefabrication. New York, John B. Pierce Foundation, July 1943. 90 pages. IIIus., plans, cross sections, elevations.
Reprinted with alterations from Arch- itectural Forum, Dec. 1942, Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., June 1943.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. A procedure for community post-war planning: jobs and production at war's end. Albert Lea, Minnesota charts a course. Washington, The Chamber, [1943]. 59 pages. Tables.
CHASE, STUART. Where's the money com- ing from? Problems of postwar finance. Guide lines to America's future as re- ported to the Twentieth Century Fund. New York, The Fund, 1943. 179 pages. Tables. ("When the War Ends," 3.) Price $1.00.
CLEVELAND, OHIO. CITY PLANNING COM- MISSION. Things we need. Cleveland, The Commission, Oct. 1943. 41 pages. IIIus., tables. (Publication no. 5.)
GAUS, JOHN MERRJMAN. The Graduate School of Design [Harvard University]
and the education of planners; a report. [Cambridge, Mass.], The School, July 1943. 50 pages.
HANSEN, ALVIN H. After the war: full employment; rev. [Washington, Govt. Printing Office], 1943. 22 pages. Table. (U. S. National Resources Planning Board.) Price 5 cents.
HAUCK, JOSEPH F., and ALVIN T. M. LEE. Land subdivision in the New Jersey Pines. Cooperating agencies: New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, United States Department of Agricul- ture. New Brunswick, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Nov. 1942. 52p. IIIus., maps., tables, chart. (Bulletin 701.)
JONES, ROBERT C. Low-cost housing in Latin America. Washington, Pan Amer- ican Union, Division of Labor and So- cial Information, Oct. 1943. 20 pages. Mimeographed. IIIus. Price 10 cents.
LEVIN, DAVID R. Public land acquisition for highway purposes. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 32 pages. Price 10 cents. At head of title: Public Roads Administration, Federal Works Agency.
LORWIN, LEWIS L. Postwar plans of the United Nations. New York, The Twen- tieth Century Fund, 1943. 307 pages. Tables, chart. Price $2.50.
Los ANGELES COUNTY, CALIF. REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION. Freeways for the region. Los Angeles, The Com- mission, 1943. 47 pages. IIIus., maps (part on end papers), plans, diagrs., cross sections, charts.
63
Planning and Civic Comment
MICHIGAN. PLANNING COMMISSION. Mich- igan planning manual. Lansing, The Commission, Oct. 1943. 56 pages. Tables, charts.
MOSES, ROBERT, and OTHERS. Portland improvement. New York, [William E. Rudge's Sons], Nov. 10, 1943. 85 pages. IIIus. (part colored), maps (part folded and part colored), plans, diagrs., cross sections, tables, charts.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MUNICIPAL LAW OFFICERS. COMMITTEE ON POST-WAR PLANNING. American cities after the war; a plan for the elimination of blighted areas; preliminary report no. I of the Committee on Post-war Planning, prepared by Walter J. Mattison. Wash- ington, The Institute, June 1943. 19 pages. Mimeographed. Price $2.00.
NATIONAL RECREATION ASSOCIATION. Standards: playgrounds, playfields, rec- rte&tion buildings, indoor recreation facilities. New York, The Association, [1943]. 13 pages.
NEW YORK. STATE POSTWAR PUBLIC WORKS PLANNING COMMISSION. Postwar public works municipal handbook; outline of procedure to be followed by municipal- ities and districts when applying for a state grant for the plans of municipal postwar projects, prepared by the New York State Postwar Public Works Plan- ning Commission in conjunction with the New York State Department of Public Works. [Albany], The Com- mission and the Dept., Sept. 15, 1943. 43 pages.
NICHOLS, PHILIP. The Massachusetts law of planning and zoning. [Boston], The Massachusetts Federation of Planning Boards, 1943. 273 pages. Frontispiece. Price $2.75.
NUFFIELD COLLEGE SOCIAL RECONSTRUC- TION SURVEY. Britain's town and coun- try pattern; a summary of the Barlow, Scott and Uthwatt reports; with an in- troduction by G. D. H. Cole. London, Faber and Faber Ltd., [1943]. 1 1 1 pages. Map, tables. (Rebuilding Britain Se- ries, no. 2.) Price 2s. 6d.
SHANAS, ETHEL. Recreation and delin- quency, a study of five selected Chicago communities made for the Chicago Recreation Commission under the super- vision of its Committee on Recreation and Juvenile Delinquency ... by Ethel Shanas with the collaboration of Cath- erine E. Dunning through projects of the Work Projects Administration. Chicago, Recreation Commission, 1942. 284 pages. Maps, tables, charts. Price $1.50.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. Shoreline development: a portion of the master plan of San Fran- cisco (preliminary report). San Fran- cisco, The Commission, Sept. 1943. 132 pages. Mimeographed. IIIus., maps (colored), plans (colored), tables.
STRAUS, NATHAN. The seven myths of housing. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. 314 pages. IIIus., tables (part folded), charts. Price $2.75.
THOMPSON, WARREN S., and P. K. WHELP- TON. Estimates of the future population of the United States, 1940-2000, pre- pared by Warren S. Thompson and P. K. Whelpton of the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems for the Committee on Population Prob- lems of the National Resources Planning Board. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 137 pages. Tables, charts. Price 35 cts.
U. S. NATIONAL INTERREGIONAL HIGHWAY COMMITTEE. Interregional highways; re- port of the National Interregional High- way Committee outlining and recom- mending a national system of inter- regional highways. [Washington], The Committee, Jan. 1944. 164 pages. Lithoprinted. IIIus., maps (part folded), plans, diagrs., tables, charts.
U. S. NATIONAL RESOURCES PLANNING BOARD. Demobilization and readjust- ment; report of the Conference on Post- war Readjustment of Civilian and Mili- tary Personnel. [Washington, Govt. Printing Office], June 1943. 106 pages. Tables, charts.
. Industrial location and na- tional resources, December 1942. Wash- ington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 360 pages. Maps, tables, charts. Price $1.50.
. LAND COMMITTEE. SPECIAL
SUBCOMMITTEE. Area analysis: a method of public works planning; rev. Apr. 1943. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 40 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps (part folded), tables (part folded), charts. (Technical Paper no. 6.) Price 15 cents.
WIENER, MINNIE, comp. War public works, a compilation of statutes, execu- tive orders, regulations, and other docu- ments, relating to the construction, financing, operation, and maintenance of community facilities under the Lan- ham Act, as amended, August 24, 1943, comp. by Minnie Wiener under the direction of Alan Johnstone. Washing- ton, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 171 pages. Price 25 cents.
64
Planning and Civic Comment
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page
Planning Progress, 1943, Part II 1
Bureau of the Budget Reports on Planning in the National
Capital
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning June 14-16, St. Louis . 6 Federal City
The Nation's City 10
Federal Works for the Federal City 14
Aesthetic Standards for the National Capital 17
Press Contributes to Planning and Civic Improvement .... 20
Strictly Personal 22
Baruch Report on Postwar Adjustment 23
Potomac River Resolutions 24
General Grant Assigned Full Time with Planning Commission . 25
Parks 27-42
State Parks Notes . 43
In Memoriam— Richard Lieber, 1869-1944 .... Robert Louis Stevenson State Park Project . . .
A State Park of Oregon Myrtle Trees
Specifications for State Park Superintendents . .
North Carolina Recreation Committee
Recent Court Decisions
American Institute of Planners Elects New Officers
Planning Officials Meet
Indiana's Postwar Planning Conference
Three Significant Books on Foreign Policy ....
Tile Map of the District of Columbia
A Valuable Study
Watch Service Report
Grandfather Mountain— Shall It Be Saved ....
Book Reviews
Recent Publications
45 47 47 48 50 51 55 55 55 56 57 57 58 59 65 67
APRIL 1944
CITIZENS CONFERENCE ON POSTWAR PLANNING
STATLER HOTEL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. JUNE 14-16, 1944 Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Association at St. Louis, 1904
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
Official Organ of: American Planning and Civic Association, National Conference on State Parks
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD
HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS JOHN IHLDER
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT GEORGE INGALLS
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW RAYMOND F. LEONARD
EDWARD M. BASSETT THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RICHARD E. BISHOP ROBERTS MANN
RUSSELL V. BLACK J. HORACE MCFARLAND
PAUL V. BROWN HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
STRUTHERS BURT KATHERINE MCNAMARA
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM HAROLD MERRILL
GEORGE L. COLLINS MARVIN C. NICHOLS
MARSHALL N. DANA JOHN NOLEN, JR.
S. R. DEBOER F. A. PITKIN
EARLE S. DRAPER HUGH R. POMEROY
NEWTON B. DRURY ISABELLE F. STORY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o L. DEMING TILTON
L. C. GRAY BEN H. THOMPSON
S. HERBERT HARE TOM WALLACE
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY CONRAD L. WIRTH HENRY V. HUBBARD
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
$3.00 a Year
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at Harrisburg, Pa.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 10
April, 1944
No. 2
Planning Progress, 1943
By CARL FEISS, Planning Director, the Denver Planning Commission SECOND OF TWO PARTS
State Planning. There were many administrative shifts in state plan- ning during the last year, appar- ently as the result of an effort on the part of several States to readjust peacetime agencies to a war and post-war policy. Six States abolished existing planning agencies, and in most cases re-established agencies with similar purpose under a differ- ent name. In California the new agency is known as the State Re- construction and Re-employment Commission; in Illinois, it is the Post-war Planning Commission. A number of States have created several supplementary groups with similar purposes, the limitations of their activities not being too clearly defined. In fact, it would appear as though many States have hesitated to give additional strength to an ex- isting agency but rather have cre- ated a series of parallel agencies of similar strength whose programs will ultimately need to be co- ordinated. Such a situation may exist in Massachusetts which has, besides the State Planning Board, four additional new war and post- war planning commissions or com- mittees. As an example of normal activity, both Michigan and Colo- rado have been completing studies on state and federal owned lands, and
the Colorado State Planning Com- mission also has completed import- ant studies on state economic prob- lems.
It is difficult to generalize on state planning activities throughout the Nation, since they take such varied forms according to the powers and organization of each agency in each State. It is reasonably safe, however, to say that nearly all state planning commissions during the past year have been occupied with post-war public works programming. There is a serious concern with mi- gration problems and employment opportunity in most States. Many States have been active in promot- ing local planning and zoning in a continuation of this peacetime ac- tivity. However, the general trend seems to be towards economic and fiscal planning in an effort to advise legislative bodies on policies and progress which can assist in post- war readjustments.
There has been a resurgence of the states-rights credo in Middle West- ern and Western States which has manifested itself through adverse reaction to regional suggestions (usually emanating from Washing- ton) affecting several States, such as the Arkansas River project. There also has been some confusion as to
Planning and Civic Comment
the role which the State should play in the national aviation picture. Some States have already established official aviation councils or com- missions that are attempting to dis- cover the appropriate limits for state planning in this field.
While mapping programs and the stimulus of local planning and zon- ing continues to be useful, and the issuance of reports on employment, industry, and finance are important activities, the effect of state plan- ning recommendations in concrete results such as the construction of planned public works or altered fiscal programs, must be obtained from studies of individual programs within each State. State Planning, with the possible exception of two or three well established commissions as in Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Maryland, is not developing as rapidly as it should be, nor is there always sufficient evidence of a com- prehensive program. This trouble is due as much to small budget and staff as to any unwillingness to tackle the larger job.
Regional and Metropolitan Plan- ning. Regional Planning, whether interstate or intrastate and con- cerned with a local region, has de- veloped effectively during the course of the year. The demise of the National Resources Planning Board came at the middle of the year, but so much activity had been stimu- lated by it in this phase that very little immediate effect was felt on regional planning, particularly in Tennessee, the Pacific Northwest, New England, and the Rocky Mountain Region. Nearly a dozen excellent reports on regional prob- lems came from the offices of NRPB,
some of them dealing with the com- prehensive regional planning of a specific area and others with some specialized phase. Whether or not the activities stimulated locally by the NRPB in such areas as the Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo region in Utah (The Wasatch Front) is sufficiently well-grounded locally to provide for permanent action as the result of the excellent reports published last year, still remains to be seen. In many cases, NRPB roots were not deep enough or the soil was insufficiently fertile to guarantee a continuity of action.
Metropolitan Regional Programs should be mentioned, as much be- cause of what they suggest in terms of administrative collaboration as because of their specific accomplish- ments. The Tri-Cities Regional Planning Project in Tennessee con- tinued to expand its program during the last year; a unique project at- tempting to coordinate urban and rural problems common to three separate communities. Two other metropolitan groups are becoming increasingly important as setting the pace for urban regional collabor- ation. These are the Louisville Area Development Association which now has $100,000 to spend in the next two years on metropolitan planning, and the Syracuse-Onon- daga Post-War Planning Council which has had the sponsorship of Fortune Magazine mentioned before. The significance of these two newer regional planning agencies, which do not differ materially from the pur- pose of the New York Regional Plan Association's original concept back in 1927, is that new forms of collaboration are now being ex-
Planning and Civic Comment
perimented with and business in- terests in our smaller cities are actively participating, both finan- cially and through committees, in local programming. Legislatively, the most interesting new develop- ment at the Regional level is the Municipal Planning and Zoning Statute for Oklahoma City which provides that the planning juris- diction of the city can be extended to a radius of some twenty-five miles beyond the city limits.
Interest in Planning in Califor- nia remains high. The legislature appropriated one and a half million dollars for county planning pur- poses and many counties have been active on their own; in particular, Los Angeles, San Mateo, and Marin Counties. In California county planning agencies and city planning agencies, both, have been extremely active in studying problems re- sulting from war congestion in their immediate area. Similar activities will be found in metropolitan war regions on the East Coast, particu- larly in Providence, R. I. and Balti- more, Md. In the Cleveland, Chi- cago, Denver and Little Rock areas, metropolitan surveys of consider- able importance to the local areas have been in progress and reports have been widely distributed. These are a few examples of the many com- munities which are beginning to de- velop strong collaborative city and county relationships. The trend towards metropolitan planning con- tinues to gain momentum. Con- stant experiment in collaboration shows the early fruit still unripe but offering much promise.
City Plans. City Planning has had an astonishing support and growth
during this last year. The import- ance of city planning commissions throughout the country to good government and to a sound promo- tion of city futures seems finally to have caught hold in nearly every major center of population. In fact, for the first time since 1893 it is once more a headline topic. It has taken fifty years since the inception of the city beautiful idea to recreate in the public mind a belief that city planning is an essen- tial and basic part of community life, and the year 1943 should stand as a banner year in the annals of city planning. Large appropriations have been made for staff and ac- tivity, tremendous in contrast with all previous appropriations for such municipal agencies. Chicago (*) and New York led the van several years before, but their appropria- tions have continued to remain in the high brackets. When Portland, Oregon, with a population in 1940 of 305,394 is willing to spend $100,000 for a plan, and Louisville, Kentucky, with a population of 319,077 is will- ing to spend a similar sum, when Philadelphia appropriates $149,000 for the staff of its planning com- mission and $600,000 for project planning, we are in a planning revo- lution. New York City put on a $91,000 exhibit as part of a twenty- five million dollar appropriation for a seven hundred million dollar im- provement program. Kansas City reorganized its commission and en- larged its staff. Buffalo is searching for men for enlarged planning staff. In fact, the manhunt is on for nearly every city.
"Chicago's reports have been outstanding with Cleveland running a close second.
Planning and Civic Comment
City planning is being put to a test. For the first time many large cities have appropriated sufficient funds to put to work all the theories and principles which we planners have been discussing in conferences for years. The war, with all the ur- ban pathologies which it has en- gendered, has placed a major re- sponsibility for the future of our cities in the hands of men who for years have acted in an advisory ca- pacity rather than in positions of responsibility. The outcome is still in doubt. Will the city planner fall back on a mere collecting of statistics and a fussing around with a few zoning problems, or will he assume the dignity and the responsibility of the position which he holds? The success or failure of planning in this country depends on the ability of our planners to take full advantage of the opportunity which is now offered them.
Perhaps the basic change which has taken place in the planning pro- fession during the past year can now be recognized. Today we have many more planners who are full time city employees than we have private practitioners in the field. These full time public servants must pro-
duce on a continuing basis. The pri- vate practitioner with his blitzkrieg tactics has never been able to pro- duce the so-called "flexible" plan. The fault is not his, it lies rather with the difficulty of establishing a continuing contact with the locality which he is employed to serve. However, we have now begun to establish on a large scale throughout the country, planning offices which contain within them men on the city payroll on an annual basis, often through civil service appoint- ments, whose job it is to con- tinually plan and who, by the very nature of such a job, are compelled to prepare the basic material and keep it not only abreast of but ahead of the constant growth and changes of cities. Out of this will come, if the possibility exists at all, the means of planning flexibly and planning with government and com- munity.
The newspapers, the radio, and innumerable periodicals of all types « have now taken up the city planning cudgel. If the planner does not recognize that this cudgel is his tool to use now, within a very short time it will be used against him.
A Great National Housing and Town Planning Conference
will be held under the auspices of the National Housing and Town Plan- ning Council in the Central Hall, Westminster, S. W. 1, London, England, on Thursday and Friday, 29th to 30th June, 1944
The Bureau of the Budget Reports
Harold D. Smith, Director of the Budget, in his Report to the Presi- dent on the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, states that the principal recommendations, if carried out, would have the fol- lowing results:
1. The Planning Commission's respon- sibilities will be clarified and in some as- pects extended. The Commission will pre- pare and keep up to date a comprehensive plan for the National Capital area, cover- ing all phases of city planning and will ad- vise all developmental and planning agencies on matters affecting the character and appearance of the area.
2. Federal and District developmental agencies will be made specifically responsi- ble for using the Commission as the central planning agency. AH Federal and District developmental agencies will look to the Commission's plan as a general guide. AH plans for specific projects will be submitted by such agencies to the Commission for re- view and recommendation. In the event of a divergence of opinion between the Com- mission and a developmental agency with respect to the recommendations of the Commission, the Commission will be af- forded an opportunity to submit further analyses and recommendations prior to final decision by the agency.
3. The coordinating work that the Commission has done in previous years by bringing together Federal and District agencies concerned with proposed projects or plans or individual segments of plans will be given a stronger statutory founda- tion.
4. The Commission will be given a more definite role with respect to the work of agencies that have major responsibilities for specific aspects of the general plan.
5. The Commission will prepare an ad- visory capital improvement program based on the advance programs of Federal and District agencies in the Capital area. The advisory program will aid the budget- ing and appropriating authorities by relat- ing individual projects and programs to the total requirements of the Capital area.
6. In addition to its present statutory responsibility for approving the location of Federal buildings (except the Capitol group), the Commission will have similar authority over District buildings in the
central area except when the Congress stipulates the location.
7. The Commission will retain its park, parkway, and playground land acquisition functions and will advise with respect to other land purchases by Federal and Dis- trict agencies.
8. The Commission will be directed, within the limits of its resources, to assist state and local planning agencies in Vir- ginia and Maryland concerned with the National Capital area and will foster co- ordinated development.
9. In view of the Commission's funda- mental importance to the Nation and the fact that it is concerned with the entire National Capital area, the Commission will be financed by Federal rather than District funds.
10. The membership of the Commission will be changed to increase the lay repre- sentation, to encourage participation by representatives of the Legislative Branch, and to recognize present organizational interests within the Executive Branch. The lay membership will be increased from four to five, the Architect of the Capital will be added, the Chairman of the House and Senate District Committees will be authorized to designate representatives if they are too busy themselves to serve, and a representative of the Federal Works Agency will be substituted for the Chief of the Forest Service.
11. In order to emphasize its essential planning role, the name of the Commission will be changed to the National Capital Planning Commission.
12. As at the present time the Com- mission will have no authority with respect to the buildings, ground, and activities under the control of the Congress.
The great measure of success achieved by the Planning Com- mission is acknowledged, but it is recognized that under the existing statute "the Commission has not been strong enough to give assur- ance that every agency would al- ways look to it at the outset for cen- tral guidance." The Bureau of the Budget is to be congratulated on a workmanlike job.
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning
June 14-16, St. Louis
IMPORTANT ASSEMBLY FOR Civic LEADERS
The American Planning and Civic Association believes that it is render- ing a very real service in bringing together at St. Louis on June 14-16 the civic leaders from the heart of the Nation to promote civilian understanding and participation in the pending postwar programs. The Association does not represent spe- cific business groups or government officials at any level. It is organized solely to promote the public good. During the past two years much progress has been made in public thinking on urban redevelopment, postwar housing and public works programs. But the task is not finished. We may well be caught without having reached mature con- clusions and with the dire necessity for immediate action staring us in the face.
Many eminent civic leaders and public officials have consented to make the trip to St. Louis because they believe that they can make a contribution to clear citizen thinking which is so much needed at this time. It is true that citizens are on the receiving end of all kinds of communications, but it is only when they can discuss pending problems with public officials and civic leaders and participate in the proceedings that we have any real meeting of minds and achieve any substantial progress in preparing for the postwar period.
It is clear that if we are to meet the problems of the postwar period
we need citizen discussion as well as official decisions. Officials cannot carry the entire load. Without the support of public opinion they are sure to fail. With the understanding and participation of the people, public officials in the postwar period can accomplish after this war what we have never before been able to achieve — a full measure of private and public employment, with planned programs for public works to be executed as needed, thus assuring a minimum of friction in the difficult adjustments made necessary by this tragic war. It is foolish to say that we should not be thinking of the postwar problems while we are still in the war, just as it was foolish to refuse to think of preparation for war before war was actually de- clared.
Two days of the conference are given over to postwar urban prob- lems and programs and one day is dedicated to state planning and national conservation.
Among the eminent speakers who are scheduled for the St. Louis meet- ing are: Mayor Kaufmann of St. Louis; Mayor Woodall Rodgers of Dallas; Thomas MacDonald, Com- missioner of Public Roads; Colonel Frank Jonah, Chief Engineer of the Frisco Railroad; Charles Gordon, Managing Director of the American Transit Association; E. J. Russell, architect of St. Louis; Chester Davis of the Federal Reserve Bank; Lu- ther Ely Smith, Chairman of the
Above:
J. Horace McFarland, President, American Civic Associa- tion, 1904- 1925
Right:
Horace M.
Albright,
President,
American
Planning
and Civic
Association,
1937-
Harland Bartholomew and Mrs. George Gellhorn
Co-Chairmen, St. Louis Sponsoring Committee,
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning
Newly Created Aloe Plaza and Milles Fountain, Union Station— St. Louis, Mo.
Planning and Civic Comment
Jefferson National Expansion Me- morial Association; Thomas H. Holden, President of the F. W. Dodge Corporation; John Ihlder, Executive Director of the National Capital Housing Authority; Hugh Potter, President of the Urban Land Institute; Alfred Bettman, Chair- man of the Cincinnati Planning Commission; Howard Menhinick of the TVA; Arthur Drefs, Chairman of the Board of the St. Louis Cham- ber of Commerce; Frederick C. Crawford, President, Thompson Prod- ucts, Cleveland; John M. Han- cock, Co-Author with Bernard Ba- ruch of the Report on War and Postwar Adjustment Policy (in- vited); J. Lionberger Davis of St. Louis; Horace H. Edwards, City Attorney of Richmond, Va.; Oliver L. Parks, President of the Parks Air College, recently written up in the Saturday Evening Post; Robert Kingery, Director of the Chicago Regional Planning Association; Dr. George T. Moore, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden; Robert Evans of the Des Moines Park Board; Major General U. S. Grant, 3rd, Chairman of the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission; Mrs. George Gellhorn of St. Louis; Stephen C. Noland, Edi- tor of the Indianapolis News and Chairman of the Indiana Economic Council; A. C. Kayanan, Planner from the Regional Association of Cleveland; Edward Connor from the Citizens Housing and Planning Council of Detroit; Bertram Tallamy of the Niagara Frontier Planning Board; L. Deming Tilton, Planning
Consultant of San Francisco; Guy Greer, Board of Editors of Fortune; Irvin McCrary of Denver; John Nolen, Jr., Director of Planning for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission; Newton B. Drury, Director of the National Park Service; Tom Wallace, Editor of the Louisville Times; and Struth- ers Burt and Louis Bromfield, emi- nent authors. Two panels will be em- ployed. The panel on planning education will be Jed by Flavel Shurtleff consisting of Dr. John Gaus of the University of Wiscon- sin; Dr. Paul Hanna of Stanford University; Prof. Karl Lohmann of the University of Illinois; Prof. Harlow Whittemore of the Univer- sity of Michigan and Prof. Philip Elwood of Iowa State College. The panel on state planning will be led by Prof. Elwood, assisted by Miss Herlihy, Chairman of the Massachusetts State Planning Board; D. Howard Doane, Chairman of the Missouri State Commission of Resources and Development; Ray- mond Pike, Director Indiana Eco- nomic Council, and others. From the Association, Frederic Delano, Chairman of the Board; Horace Al- bright, President; Flavel Shurtleff, Counsel; Harlean James, Executive Secretary and Mrs. Dora A. Pad- gett, Editor of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT, will be in attendance. An eminent sponsoring committee, with Harland Bartholomew and Mrs. George Gellhorn acting as co-chair- men, Lionberger Davis, Treasurer, and F. E. Lawrence, Jr. as Secretary, has made excellent arrangements.
FEDERAL CITY
EDITOR'S NOTE — On February 18, the following addresses were given at a dinner of the Joint Committee on the National Capital, of which the American Planning and Civic Association is one of ten members. Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, 3rd, pre- sided. See also General Grant's monograph on Washington — A Planned City in Evolution, in the 1943 American Planning and Civic Annual.
The Nation's City
By CHARLES D. MAGINNIS, Past President, American Institute of Architects
There was a time when, dressed in a little brief authority, I used to be a frequent visitor to the Capital. I have been living since in a pro- vincial seclusion on the fringe of things so as to give me tonight the sensation of having been withdrawn out of a cloister into this sophisti- cated occasion. I never lost for a moment the consciousness of Wash- ington. One cannot any more. I dare not ask how vividly you are aware of Boston, which long ago was so unique a place in the national imagination. Yet it, too, is unfor- gettable. History was so generous to Boston. The early patriots made it a hallowed place. It was the abode of giants in the great age of Ameri- can letters when men spoke of it as the Modern Athens. It is a glory long departed but the memory of it is still a wistfulness of the modern Boston, whose countenance bears the unmistakable imprint of its proud history. It is a city of in- dividuality. No visitor is unmoved by the sentiment of the ancient souvenirs that survive in the midst of its everyday realism. Boston should guard well these proud pos- sessions in the days of its inconse- quence.
It is curious that the individuality of cities is so negligible a concern when we observe the feeling with which the average man asserts his
citizenship. He regards his locality as an inevitable sort of place, whose validity he would not dream of doubting. He is not merely com- placent about it but he has built up a patriotism for it which is a particu- larly sensitive passion. It has noth- ing whatever to do with the merit of things. It is a pride quite beyond objective provocations for it can be roused to astonishing enthusiasm by the most dreary and despairing of neighborhoods.
There is a singular perversity of this urban patriotism that it doesn't perceive local disorders and, when it does, it finds an unaccountable relish in them. Once as I was leav- ing the mellow respectability of Ex- eter Cathedral in England, my cabby shocked me with an invita- tion to visit the slums. "What", said I, "Slums in Exeter?" "Why Lord bless'ee, Sir, we has slums in Exeter that Lunnon's ain't a patch on". But I preferred to carry away only the fragrant memories. It was Lord Bryce who said that the city was the weak, and might even prove the fatal, spot in our demo- cratic system. But this is a political problem which will ultimately come to settlement. I have confidence that it is not beyond the American ingenuity.
In only a single instance, but that a striking one, has the architect been
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Planning and Civic Comment
identified with the shaping of Ameri- can cities, so crystalized is the prin- ciple that his concern is limited to the individual unit of the street. That his talents can profitably be drawn to the study of the city as an organism, however, is an idea that is slowly coming to acceptance, and American architecture has been awake to the high opportunity. The artistic and scientific skills have be- come effectively organized in the relatively new profession of the City Planners whose particular business it now becomes to mould the com- munity to its own genius, to substi- tute principles of design for economic anarchy. Beauty, so long admitted only as an oasis in the heart of non- description, will eventually be brought to the American city as an organic and disciplined thing. The progress will be slow and difficult. Commerce is mighty and has many ways of ugliness. It must be com- pelled by force of sentiment or law to temper its enterprise to the public sensibility. Until this hope comes to impressive reality, there will be question whether the measure of our civilization is to be found in the high estate of American art or in the de- basement of our civic and rural land- scapes. Our culture is not to be vindicated by the excellence of sky scrapers. If the challenge of this ugliness is not recognized as the first artistic problem of America, Radio City and the Empire State have done us too much honor. We have been carving cherrystones while the country is given over to the devastating barbarities of the bill- board. So much needs saying even as we acknowledge that many of our cities are articulated by art of the
highest order and a few have en- tered on the path of official initiative. Here we should fairly take account of the thrilling municipal enter- prise of New York which is changing the face of things under bold and in- telligent leadership.
But it is the vision of the National Capital that leaps to the mind as our incomparable community. It is altogether fitting it should be so. No mere secular city, circumscribed within its own borders and pre- occupied by its own life, Washing- ton is a political abstraction, the Nation's city of the spirit. In this large meaning every American from Maine to California lays claim to its citizenship. From the beginning it was meant that it should be rendered in the terms of dignity that would do credit to the American idea. We are met tonight in the interest of that high intention. Our country is entering upon a larger life. As it moves out of its retirement into the companionship of the nations it must bear itself proudly. However genial may be the inter-national amenities, we know that Europe is yet to be convinced of the re- spectability of our culture. It has never withheld its recognition nor its tributes to our great men, but it has seen them as lonely obelisks, as eccentric phenomena that have not sensibly qualified its traditional estimate of us. We are actually the most sentimental of nations but yet the persuasion is not easily dis- turbed that the American genuis is so engrossed in a civilization of ma- terialism as to be incapable of a sus- tained effort in the arts towards a really national utterance. Yet the City of Washington is precisely such
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Planning and Civic Comment
a demonstration. It is that by the merit of its genesis. For it is a flowering that stems from the early poverty of the Republic. That the intellectual concept came from the mind of the first President is one of the symbolic felicities of history. No less so was the circumstance that the imagination was ready that could shape it to noble correspond- ence. Out of this union of thought came the great L' Enfant plan whose fortunes through the years have been so anxious an interest till it came to final vindication. From its inception it has had its critics, for in the waywardness of human nature we are incapable of reaching uni- versal agreement about anything. There was controversy over the geography of the Capital City. There followed protesting opinion and even ridicule over the ambitious- ness of the plan, as its implications were seen to be at odds with the modesty of the early need. It suf- fered definite violations as in the arbitrary intrusion of the Treasury whose classic countenance offered a doubtful atonement. I recall my- self the time when, as a visitor to Washington, I could step on the Mall from the Pennsylvania train whose tracks lay directly across it. The plan had been forgotten and the Washington scene became an unsightly confusion of monumental dignities and a squalor that roused the national indignation. We ob- serve the first phase of its recapture when in 1871 President Grant was moved to establish the Territory with Alexander Shepherd as its first Governor. Shepherd was a man of action possessed of an energy that cut into the languid compla-
cency of the time and earned from the captious the nickname of the "Boss." Later history, in the light of events, has made reparation to the memory of Boss Shepherd who, in the face of popular clamor made a remarkable contribution to civic order and efficiency. His reforms could not be entirely palatable to the regulated emotions of taxpayers. Few reforms in the physical order ever are. Yet as we look backward in the light of our contemporary arithmetic, we cannot feel that Boss Shepherd laid any tragic load upon his generation.
The L' Enfant plan had not yet, however, come to official protection, or indeed to official consciousness. It was not until the nineties that the plan was actually lifted out of the obscurity in which it had Jain for a hundred years. It is a happy mem- ory of my profession that The American Institute of Architects gave it instantly the authority of its championship. Its proposal for a special commission of experts to deal with "The location and grouping of public buildings and monuments and the development and improve- ment of the entire park system" was sponsored by Senator McMillan, Chairman of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, and what has been known as the Mc- Millan Commission was presently authorized by Congress. The dis- tinguished competence of the Com- mission, composed as it was of Daniel H. Burnham and Charles Follen McKim representing archi- tecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., landscape architecture, and Augustus St. Gaudens, the art of sculpture, amply implied the weight
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Planning and Civic Comment
of its conclusions. An independent and exhaustive study that took fresh account of all the elements of the civic problem as well as of the ways which had brought distinction to the great Capitals of history, finally issued in a complete endorse- ment of the plan of L'Enfant. In 1910 Congressional approval was se- cured by Elihu Root, then Senator for New York, for a bill establishing the National Commission of Fine Arts, whose duties, at first limited to the review of proposed statues, fountains and monuments, were later enlarged to include parks and public buildings. This was an act of enlightened statesmanship which re- sulted in enormous benefaction as it brought to being what has proved to be the most potent influence upon the art of Washington. The under- standing and the fortitude with which it has resisted the assaults of ugliness and upheld responsible standards of design have earned for it a national acknowledgment.
The civic intelligence has no truer index than concern for its parks, and this concern was mani- fested in the report of the McMillan Commission. However, the recom- mendations of that commission failed to bear fruit. In the 25 years following the filing of the Commis- sion report, only six of fifty-three recommended sites were acquired. To correct this situation, a Park Commission was launched in 1924. This served to implement the park and public building programs but had no authority to deal with other elements of well-rounded city plan- ning. Accordingly, two organiza- tion committees were set up to work for planning legislation — the one, a
Washington "Committee of One- Hundred" with the backing of the American Civic Association; the other, a nation-wide Committee of the American Institute of Archi- tects. The architects* committee, established in 1924, was instructed to work for a competent and properly qualified body to prepare "a com- prehensive and coordinated plan for the future harmonious develop- ment of the entire District of Colum- bia and its environs" — which phras- ing was adapted in the final legisla- tion reconstituting the Park Com- mission as the "National Capital Park and Planning Commission."
In line with its general authoriza- tion, the development of a regional scheme that would coordinate the planning of the capital and its en- virons became its first and most pressing purpose. On the publica- tion of its first draft at a convention of the American Society of Land- scape Architects, sympathetic co- operation was pledged by the Gov- ernors of Maryland and Virginia — a cooperation implemented by the four cooperating Planning Commis- sions established in the adjunct jurisdictions of these States. With what intelligance and devotion the Commission has dealt with these responsibilities needs no telling to such a company as this nor to the comprehending citizenship that it represents.
So brief a review cannot fittingly acknowledge all the instrumentali- ties that have labored for the artistic good of the Capital, but it is a devo- tion that will not be forgotten. It has been a process that has made for competencies which, in a continuing exercise, would be adequate to the
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Planning and Civic Comment
expanding city and wake no appre- hensions. But an element of another consequence has entered in. A changing world has driven art into the mood of revolution, and Wash- ington must confront the challenge of a philosophy which, in the name of modernism, protests its archi- tectural validity. It is a movement to be reckoned with, a crusade that will find so classic a citadel a particu- lar provocation. It would be an in- tellectual disloyalty were we in- different to the claims of an archi- tecture that professes to interpret with superior logic the disposition of the time. Those of us who detect limits to the pertinence of the new design, however, are reasonably
concerned about its implications on the Washington tradition. We know its precocities. They raise doubts about the effect of its disturbing presence in so orderly a household. Reasonably it is not here a problem of principle but of decorum. As such we may leave it to the wisdom that has watched thus far over the formal good-order of the Federal City. On this and all other accounts we must feel it a happy circumstance that those agencies promise to abide with it which have carried the City through so many vicissitudes to an integrity that has won the enthusi- astic sanction of the American people.
Federal Works for the Federal City
By MAJ. GEN. PHILIP B. FLEMING, Administrator, Federal Works Agency
Although hardly eligible for mem- bership in the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants, I have lived in Washington for so many years that today it is about the only "old home town" of which I can boast. Like other Washingtonians, I am proud of the city and not unmindful of the very serious responsibility toward its future development which goes with my present position.
This has become the greatest capital city in the world as measured by the weight of the world-wide de- cisions now made here. It was long known as the most beautiful before the recent rapid growth in popula- tion and the tremendous increase in governmental activity in restricted space which war made inevitable. Fortunately, some of the less de- sirable things we have had to do be-
cause of the war can easily be un- done.
From the first, Washington was favored by many natural factors, not the least of which was that the United States was a new nation when it was founded. It was the first of our deliberately planned cities, and the plan was a sound one later copied in considerable extent by Buffalo, Detroit and Indianap- olis. Although some modifications have been made necessary by fac- tors which L' Enfant could not have foreseen — such as the development of the automobile — the original con- cept has not been forgotten and it will continue to be carried out in its basic essentials. As a consequence, a heavy responsibility rests upon those agencies concerned with the location and design of Federal
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Planning and Civic Comment
buildings which can only be effec- tively discharged by means of the complete and cordial relationships existing among the National Capi- tal Park and Planning Commission, the Fine Arts Commission, the Architect of the Capitol, the Public Buildings Administration, and the District Government. Happily, co- operation is close and intimate.
Since it is well recognized that a single badly designed and poorly placed building could affect ad- versely the composition of a whole group of neighboring structures, every building must be designed to fit into an over-all pattern based upon requirements extending many years into the future, so far as those requirements can be foreseen at any given time. In no other way can a balanced architectural growth be assured. And, of course, the place- ment of buildings affects the distri- bution of living space and means of transportation, and the latter, in turn, affect the location of public buildings.
The volume of postwar building construction which may develop in the District of Columbia cannot now be foreseen. One of the many factors now uncertain is the peace- time size of the military establish- ment. Nor is it known how many of the government agencies removed from the District in the decentrali- zation program will be returned. There have begun to emerge, how- ever, some basic considerations. Public Buildings Administration
Program
We in the Federal Works Agency are strongly committed to the prin- ciple that, as quickly as war con- ditions will permit and new perma-
nent construction becomes possible, all Federal structures on the Mall shall be removed. And from this happy demolition I do not exclude the Munitions and the Navy Build- ings on Constitution Avenue — those quaint, unsightly heirlooms be- queathed to us by the first World War. Down they must come. Of necessity, therefore, a study must be made of the future space needs of the Navy Department.
A few years ago preliminary draw- ings were made for a new Navy De- partment building, but the impact of the war and the increasing size of the Navy — which, I read, now out- strips all other navies of the world combined — require a much larger structure than that previously con- templated. Funds are now held in reserve for a new building for the General Accounting Office and for the West-Central heating plant in Georgetown. The foundations for the latter were laid before the short- age of labor and materials brought a cessation to all construction which could possibly be deferred. No other funds are now available for per- manent buildings in Washington.
Contrary to a rather general im- pression, there will be no excess of Federal space in the Capital in the postwar period. Even before the war the Federal Government was renting approximately three million square feet of space in the District. The mammoth Pentagon Building is a new addition but, because of the increased peace-time activities of the War Department which may be ex- pected hereafter, the additional space there will barely offset the Munitions Building and some rela- tively unimportant structures nor
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Planning and Civic Comment
will the proposed General Account- ing Office building represent any considerable relief to the total Fed- eral space problem. The activities of the Office are increasing to a point where a larger building than that originally contemplated will be required.
It is manifest that new building construction should be started early in the postwar period. The sym- pathetic cooperation of all groups having a vital responsibility in the matter will be required and, if past experience is a dependable guide, it will be forthcoming.
So much for the matter of build- ings. Of equal importance are the means for rapid, smooth and con- venient transportation. Under that heading the prospect for the future is more definite.
Public Roads Administration Pro- gram
Washington will be the hub for four routes of the proposed inter- regional highways — assuming that the recommended system will be built, as I feel sure it will be. One of the four routes will extend north toward Baltimore, one northwest- ward, one southwestward, one south in the direction of Richmond.
Specific locations of these routes, both in Washington and at the ap- proaches to the District of Colum- bia, have not yet been determined. Highway authorities in the District are therefore conducting many stud- ies of locations and improvements for the interregional routes through Washington, as well as for other postwar highway developments in the city.
Of the Federal money made available by Congress in November
1941, and again in July 1943, for planning postwar highway im- provements in the various States, the share of the District of Colum- bia totaled more than $226,000. This, together with the required matching District funds, has en- abled the District to program more than $453,000 of investigations, sur- veys, and advance engineering with Federal aid.
These programmed planning proj- ects, and others on which the Dis- trict is making preliminary surveys, cover construction estimated to cost more than $26,000,000. Other simi- lar projects in the Washington metropolitan area, but under the supervision of Maryland and Vir- ginia highway authorities, represent additional construction which would cost approximately $5,000,000. So that $31,000,000 of postwar con- struction is in view in the metro- politan area. This total includes the Shirley Memorial Highway in south- eastern Fairfax County, although most of this is not strictly in the metropolitan area.
In the District of Columbia, more than $10,000,000 of construction is being planned to make K Street a crosstown throughway. The design already has been completed for an elevated highway from the north end of Key Bridge in Georgetown to con- nect with present improvements on K Street at Rock Creek. The estimated cost of this elevated
structure is $2,200,000.
* * *
Between Rock Creek and 21st Street, N. W., K Street will be re- constructed as a depressed highway at an estimated cost of $2,500,000. The design is 5 per cent complete.
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Planning and Civic Comment
From 12th Street, N. W., to North Capitol Street, K Street will be depressed, passing by subway through Mount Vernon square, site of the Public Library. The subway construction will cost about $3,- 400,000 and the remainder of this section about $2,300,000. Consul- tants are being employed to make the preliminary analysis for the de- velopment of this depressed route and surveys are 10 per cent complete.
Another ambitious project calls for a new $7,000,000 bridge across the Potomac at approximately the location of the present 14th Street bridge. It will actually be two bridges, according to present plans — one for each direction of travel. Each will be four lanes wide. Sur- veys are 50 percent complete.
The third major project is a $4,500,000 bridge over the Aha- costia River on South Capitol Street. This structure, now almost fully de- signed, will provide an important crossing for the considerable de- velopment that has occurred in
southeast Washington in recent years. It will connect with roads to Suitland and Camp Springs where the Government has made exten- sive improvements. The existing bridge at the Navy Yard has be- come increasingly inadequate. Its alignment is poor, and its approach roads narrow.
A fourth major postwar project is an underpass at Dupont Circle to cost about $1,250,000. Design is 80 percent complete.
A great many lesser projects are under consideration. The more im- portant of these include two under- passes at street intersections with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Each will cost about $200,000, one on Riggs Road and the other on Kansas Avenue, both in the north- east quarter.
The prospect, therefore, is that Washington again will become fore- most among the most beautiful capitals of the World, and one of the most convenient in which to live and work.
Aesthetic Standards for the National Capital
By GILMORE D. CLARKE, Chairman, National Commission of Fine Arts
An eminent Justice of the New York State Court of Appeals, in a majority decision ordering the re- moval of a large and particularly offensive billboard erected on the approach to an important bridge across the Hudson River, wrote in part that "beauty may not be a queen, but she is not an outcast be- yond the pale of protection and re- spect. She may at least shelter her- self under the wing of safety, morality, or decency." The Com- mission of Fine Arts, established by
Congress in 1910, has taken an ac- tive part in the development of the National Capital and formulated a continuing artistic policy ever recog- nizing Beauty as Queen.
As a result of the partial and even total destruction of many of the capitals of Europe, Washington now takes a place preeminent, a position which must be maintained through- out the subsequent years. It is the artistic eminence of this City which chiefly concerns the Commission of Fine Arts, embracing as it does the
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Planning and Civic Comment
design of public buildings, of parks, and of bridges, as well as the ap- propriate embellishment of these constituent elements with the art of the sculptor and of the painter.
During the last decade the Commission has witnessed material changes in the general character of artistic creation, particularly within the field of architecture; changes in our economic and in our social life are clearly manifest in every phase of human endeavor. Insofar as the National Capital is concerned, changes in architectural expression fortu- nately have been gradual for, as you are fully aware, the Commission has not sanctioned the abandon- ment of the classic background which was the basis for rebuilding the City in the years of its renais- sance, stimulated by the Senate Park Commission in 1901. While recently we have not invited the in- corporation of those details on buildings, which particularly dis- tinguish Greek and Roman monu- ments, we have urged adherence to beauty of form, to excellence of proportions and to permanence of ^ materials, all attributes of design exemplary of the art of the archi- tecture of the past. These attributes, we believe, must continue to domi- nate the design of our important governmental structures as well as of certain other buildings erected as important elements in the great un- finished fabric which is Washington. In some of the finest buildings of the Capital the architects departed from a slavish adherence to details repre- sented in classic forms but, never- theless, followed the fundamental basic principles of design which guided the artistic leaders of the
Greek and Roman Worlds and of the Renaissance. For example, no one, to my knowledge, has ever ex- pressed the opinion that the home of the National Academy of Sciences by the late Bertram G. Goodhue or the Folger Shakespeare Library by Paul P. Cret are incongruous in the Washington scene. Thus, as archi- tectural designs are simplified, we make room for rich embellishment by sculptor and by painter and thus provide a greater distinction in our buildings, a distinction which will tend to make them wholly Ameri- can in their flavor. The strict and rigid compliance with the tenets of the classical school in architecture, which have obtained altogether too long in Washington, must be abandoned in favor of a more fresh approach to the problems which will confront the designers of new build- ings in the future.
I wish I had time to tell you of some of the monstrosities and of ill- considered projects which the Com- mission of Fine Arts has prevented over a period of more than three decades. These preventive accom- plishments may be said to lie buried in the files; they constitute the records of disapproval of all manner of unsuitable and inappropriate de- signs which, fortunately, will never be realized. Many of these grave errors would have changed materi- ally the face of this City had they taken form in stone, in mortar, and in steel. The most notable among the recent examples of preventive action was the decision by the Presi- dent of the United States, on the recommendation of the Fine Arts and Planning Commissions, to change the proposed site for the Pentagon
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Planning and Civic Comment
Building from the location first pro- posed in Arlington, on the extension of the axis of the Mall west of the Potomac, to a position three-quarters of a mile South. This action pre- vented the construction of this huge building in an area originally des- ignated as part of the National Cemetery and now so dedicated.
Through authority granted under the Shipstead-Luce Act, approved by Congress in 1930, the Commis- sion of Fine Arts exerts an effective control over the design of all build- ings erected on private property bordering upon certain of the public lands of the Capital, and conse- quently they have prevented the construction of many buildings and other structures which would have destroyed utterly the dignity of the Central Composition and of the lands bordering upon Rock Creek Park. Our methods of control at all times have been reasonable so that to date it has been unnecessary to test this Act in the' Courts. Now, after fourteen years' trial, it appears that reasonable aesthetic control over private building development is most likely to be held a constitu- tional right of government, not only in Washington, but in other cities.
In the period postwar we look forward to the demolition of all temporary buildings erected for this War, as well as the so-called, "tem- porary structures" erected along Constitution Avenue during the early days of the last conflict, to the end that Washington may once again take on an atmosphere of great dignity becoming its import- ance as the Capital of this Nation. We are prepared to aid the Congress in solving the inevitable problem of
War Memorials, and to assist the appropriate agencies of the Govern- ment in carrying out a program of construction of public works aimed to fulfil certain needs of this City and to serve also as a means whereby many of the men of this community now in the Armed Forces and in war industry, may find employment during a period of from 18 months to two years after cessation of hostilities, while business and indus- try are being geared to take up the full burden of employment.
We shall aid in the protection of the majestic Valley of the Potomac, to beyond Great Falls, against en- croachments incompatible with the best uses of this area. Articles in the public press have indicated that plans are contemplated which, if carried out, would forever destroy the artistic integrity of the valley. Even a compromise scheme is un- desirable here; we cannot build dams, no matter how well done, and at the same time continue to enjoy the beauty of this indispensable asset of the Nation's Capital. The Commission of Fine Arts took an important part in defeating the last attempt to despoil this single re- maining untouched remnant of Na- ture's achievement in this region, and we shall continue to advocate the full protection of this magnifi- cent valley for enjoyment by future generations of Americans.
Finally, we shall continue to follow our policy of close collabora- tion with the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, with the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and with other agencies, to protect and to enhance the beauty and the convenience of the City.
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Press Contributes to Planning and Civic Improvement*
The Kansas City Star
By J. HARRY JONES
William Rockhill Nelson estab- lished The Kansas City Star in Sep- tember 1880. The following spring he started a campaign for parks and boulevards that plunged him into the midst of the first of many fights he had to go through to give Kansas City the great park and boulevard system it has now.
Opposition to his plans were al- most violent at times. One wealthy land owner asked: "Have you a carriage, bobtailed horses and a liveried coachman? Then what good will boulevards do you?"
Colonel Nelson still was pleading and fighting for civic improvements when he died in 1915. Early in his career he commissioned a young architect who was employed by a railroad, to draw a plan for the huge bluff overlooking the Union station, in the river bottoms. This young man climbed to the station cupola and went to work. Out of it came the beautiful Kersey Coates terrace, and a career, for the young architect was George E. Kessler, who became one of the world's greatest city planners.
The Star pounded away on the park and boulevard system, and in 1892 the city's first park board was named, and its first move was to employ Kessler as planner.
"To undertake important work in a half-hearted manner is the poorest
This is the second in a series of articles on the part played by the press in promoting, planning, and civic improvement.
economy," Kessler told the board, "and it is far better to plan com- prehensively and broadly and pro- ceed with actual construction lei- surely, than to attempt economy in the original plans."
Mr. Kessler adhered to that pol- icy with the help of Colonel Nelson and The Star, and out of it grew most of the park and boulevard sys- tem the city has today.
The Star's campaigns through the years have had a wide range, from swat-the-fly and feed-the-birds to parks, flood control, trafficways, symphonic music and art master- pieces. It was for this latter that Colonel Nelson and his family left their fortunes, a dream now realized in the great Nelson gallery.
The Star's never-ceasing fight for civic growth went on through the early days of this century. By 1912, it pointed with pride to the fact that Kansas City, in proportion to population, then had a greater park acreage than any other city of the Nation except Minneapolis.
The ideas fostered by The Star and Kessler took roots in many places. One young real estate dealer, J. C. Nichols, enthused by the theories of orderly developments, purchased ten acres south of town, and using Kessler's ideas on taking advantage of topography started a homes development that now takes in more than 4,000 acres of homes, with areas set aside for business and
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Planning and Civic Comment
apartments in well selected positions. The district is dotted with art treasures from Europe, Asia and Mexico — statues, pottery, fountains — gifts from Mr. Nichols to the area.
While The Star devoted much attention to the aesthetic side of the city's life it continued to pound away for commercial and industrial advantages. This was done through its columns, and by prodding the commercial club.
A new union station, third largest in the world, the American Royal Livestock pavilion, and other enter- prises came into being in the first two decades of the century. The Star fought hard and long for river transportation, finally achieved.
Colonel Nelson died, but his policies went right on. Kansas City was growing rapidly, and showing signs of growing pains. Some cities of the Nation had developed city planning staffs, and The Star began urging similar action here.
Finally its editors sent a reporter, Ernest Tucker, over the country to visit these cities, and find what they were doing in city planning, how they were setting up their staffs, and what results were being had. From city to city he went, where planning already had started. He reported his findings in The Star's news columns, and by the time he returned to his desk, Kansas City knew what city planning was, and what the city might gain from it.
The approach, of course, had to be through the city officials. The Star had pounded city planning at them, but at the city hall, steeped in politics, there was hesitation. Finally Mayor James Cowgill told us :
"We don't know anything about
city planning. We haven't a soul down at the city hall who knows how to set up such a thing. If you will lend us Ernest Tucker to tell us how to go about it, we'll go ahead."
Tucker assented to The Star's re- quest to help start city planning, and in 1919 the first commission was named, and Tucker was made sec- retary. He remained five years, until the work was well started, be- fore he returned to The Star, where today he still is helping The Star fight the city's battles, making fre- quent trips to watch over the efforts to get adequate flood control.
In the '30s, a Ten- Year Plan was developed for Kansas City, and mainly through the efforts of The Star, a 30-miIlion-doIIar bond issue was voted to carry out a carefully prepared list of projects. The 30 millions, however, was more than the city hall group could handle without getting sticky fingers. A system of misappropriations, mis- spending, and plain thieving fed upon itself until it collapsed under its own weight, taking with it a good part of the city's well-made plans.
During these years the city plan commission was not permitted to function properly, and when the present administration took over in 1940, the staff was virtually in- operative. The Star, which finally had succeeded in ousting machine control at the city hall, joined with the new mayor, John B. Gage, the city manager, L. P. Cookingham, and the head of the city plan com- mission, Herbert V. Jones, and a new staff was built up. Headed by out- standing plan engineers, this staff of sixteen men now is doing an out- standing job of city planning.
21
Strictly Personal
Harold S. Buttenheim was named by the United Tenant Leagues of Greater New York on December 12 as the recipient of the 4th Annual Award for Meritorious Housing Service — "many years devoted to the varied fields of housing and for his successful leadership of the Citizens' Housing Council of N. Y."
Gerald Egan, formerly with the National Resources Planning Board, is now in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. Recently he received the Purple Heart and the Silver Star Medal on his World War I record.
Edmund N. Bacon, Managing Director of the Philadelphia Hous- ing Association for the past three years, has been inducted into the Navy. Mr. Bacon cooperated with the Joint National Conference on Planning, held in Philadelphia in 1941.
Charles W. Eliot 2d, is now Di- rector of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation in the field of planning and assumed his new duties on January 1.
D. Howard Doane, of St. Louis, is Chairman of the new Missouri State Commission of Resources and Development.
Henry H. Saylor is editor of the new publication, Journal of the American Institute oj Architects, which succeeds the Octagon.
Frederick Law Olmsted has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Membership in the Academy is re- stricted to not more than fifty, and only members of the National In- stitute of Arts and Letters are eligible.
- <$> -
Myron D. Downs, formerly En- gineer and Secretary of the Cin- cinnati City Planning Commission, has been granted leave of absence to join the armed forces.
The accidental death of R. K. A. Kletting of Salt Lake City, which occurred recently, deprives the City Planning and Zoning Commission of one of its most active and in- fluential members. Mr. Kletting was a well-known architect and civic leader of Salt Lake City.
Charles T. Stewart, former Di- rector, Urban Land Institute, is now serving as Lieut, (j. g.) U. S. N. R. Miss Margaret Kay Stewart, former secretary of the Denver Real Estate Board, has been named to succeed Mr. Stewart.
Leslie Williams, formerly with the Civic Planning and Traffic Board of Providence, Rhode Island, has been appointed city planning engineer of the American Transit Company.
Robert Moses has been reelected to serve as Chairman of the N. Y. State Council of Parks, a position he has held by unanimous vote for the past 20 years.
22
Planning and Civic Comment
Col. Alexander R. Heron is the new head of the State Reconstruc- tion and Reemployment commission which replaced the former State Planning Board. V. B. Stanbery is a staff member in charge of research activities.
Earl Mills and Gordon Whitnall
have been engaged by the City of Los Angeles to assist in the redraft- ing of the zoning ordinance.
Joe D. Wood, Idaho Director of Highways, is again connected with the Idaho Department of Public Works at Boise.
Baruch Report on Postwar Adjustment
Report on War and Postwar Adjust- ment Policies. Submitted by Bernard M. Baruch and John M. Hancock. 78th Con- gress, 2d Session. Document No. 154. U. S. Government Printing Office, Wash- ington 1944.
The Baruch-Hancock Report, in the letter of transmittal to James F. Byrnes, Director of the Office of War Mobilization, stressed con- siderations as follows:
1. Getting us all back to work in peace- time enterprises. This may require a special authority under the Director of War Mobilization to give its entire atten- tion to the problem of bringing jobs to all workers, with emphasis laid upon the re- turning service men and service women who are our first concern.
2. Taking the Government out of busi- ness by —
(a) Payment for work done and work under way.
(b) These payments can be made with ample protection to the Government against fraud.
(c) Move out and store war materials from plants so as to make room for equipment and materials for civilian production.
(d) Centralize the control and disposal of surpluses of all types in such a way as to bring them into ready and effective use and insure orderly markets. This, too, may require a special administrator in the Office of War Mobilization.
3. A general tightening up of the in- dustrial war front so as to finish the bloody business with finality and thus be ready for peace.
4. Spreading acceptance by war con- tractors of the "Uniform Contract Arti-
cle," as recommended by us and approved by you.
5. Place all war agencies under running review to cut them down as their work dwindles; also review of all war industrial controls.
6. Immediate extension of laws govern- ing Price Control, Priorities and Requi- sitioning, all three expiring this year.
7. Early engineering on public works to be ready if needed to fill in the valley of un- employment.
8. Provide credit means for those re- quiring it during the adjustment period, particularly for the smaller business groups and returning servicemen.
9. Prepare now for future action reduc- ing taxes from war to peacetime levels, thereby providing necessary incentive for initiative and enterprise and stimulating employment.
10. Prepare an Emergency X-day Re- conversion Plan to be used in the event of a sudden collapse of Germany so as to en- able us to go on with our crusade against Japan and at the same time to prevent the dislocation resulting from lack of prepara- tion. This phase of the broader plan is to be worked out by the Armed Services with the War Production Board.
The writers of the report con- sider that the postwar period pre- sents a serious problem of gigantic nature, but they believe that it is soluble. They state that the first question to be considered is how to get government work out of the plants so civilian work can come back in. This involves three ques- tions : How are war contractors go- ing to get the money owed them?
23
Planning and Civic Comment
How is the Government property to be moved out physically from their plants? And, while dojng that, how is the public interest to be protected? These answers involve the economic welfare of the country and on them may depend the planning programs in which the Civic Association is deeply interested.
But the Report does deal, also, directly with planning as may be seen in the following statement:
Planning, designing and engineering of worthwhile projects — not simply make- work schemes — should be pressed im- mediately and put on the shelf for use if needed. . . . Public works, it must be re- membered, can only have a limited func- tion and their greatest usefulness lies in helping to fill the valleys of depression. If
public works are to be a reserve of em- ployment, they should not be carried on in a period of full employment but should be kept on the shelf until needed.
The Report even suggests that Congress may want to establish a fund in the Federal Works Agency with which to assist local bodies in the preparatory planning, but at- tention is called to the fact that the debt burden of many communities, cities and States is far lower than that of the Federal Government.
No doubt some modifications will be made in the proposed legis- lation, but Messrs. Baruch and Hancock have given us a handbook of procedure which demands serious attention.
Potomac River Resolutions
The Izaak Walton League at its 22d Annual Conference on April 1, 1944, adopted the following resolu- tion:
Whereas, within recent months attempts are being made to secure federal appro- priations for the purpose of building a series of dams along the Potomac River and its tributaries, allegedly in the in- terest of commerce, flood control and the development of hydroelectric power, and
Whereas, the building of the proposed dams will destroy much of the scenic beauty and many of the historic sites along the lower Potomac, without any appreciable contribution to flood con- trol or possible future commerce or navi- gation, and we believe after investiga- tion will eventually be detrimental to the fish and aquatic life of the region, and
Whereas, we believe the plans, with re- spect to the building of dams on the Potomac River and its tributaries are part of another effort to inaugurate new experiments in the field of social eco- nomics, designed in this instance pri- marily to create industrial life in the Potomac watershed
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Izaak Walton League of America in conference assembled April 1, 1944, go on record as condemning the hasty and imprudent action of the interests presently attempting to secure federal consideration and federal funds for the construction of this unnecessary and un- wanted series of dams.
Other resolutions were adopted on the subjects of Flood Control Re- search, Forest Research, Water Pollution, Great Lakes Fisheries, Ivory-Bill Woodpecker, Kankakee Marsh, Water Development Co- operation, National Water Policy, Cutting Practices on Private Lands
and Excise Tax on Fishing Tackle. * * *
Another Resolution of interest in connection with power develop- ment on the Potomac River was passed by the Public Utilities Com- mittee of Maryland's Montgomery County Civic Federation, April 10.
24
Planning and Civic Comment
WHEREAS, your committee understands that a survey of the Potomac Valley is being made under the direction of the Corps of Engineers of the War Depart- ment with a view to the development of this area in the public interest: and
WHEREAS, the topography, rock forma- tion, deep gorges, wild life, and much of scientific interest all enhanced by a rushing body of water of considerable volume at certain seasons, more es- pecially between Great Falls and Little Falls, possess unusual inspirational beauty and grandeur, and constitute an asset of great scenic and recreational value to the National Capital and its environs, now therefore be it resolved: That the Montgomery County Civic
Federation urges and recommends to the representatives of the Corps of Engineers engaged in the survey of the Potomac River Area, that they give due and full consideration to the importance of preserving and enhancing the afore- said scenic and recreational values by creating a National Park on both sides of Great Falls, said National Parks to be reached by roadways on both sides of the Potomac River from Georgetown and Rosslyn, and said roadways to be connected above the Falls by a bridge across the Potomac, to the end that the scenic beauty and grandeur of this por- tion of the Potomac River may be made more readily accessible to the residents of the National Capital and its environs, as well as to visitors of this area.
General Grant Assigned Full Time with Planning Commission
On September 11, 1942, the President appointed General Grant Chairman of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, re- lieving Mr. Frederic A. Delano. Since that date, General Grant has been carrying the increasing re- sponsibilities of that chairmanship in addition to his work as Chief of the Protection Branch of the Office of Civilian Defense.
The President has now acted to relieve this pressure by assigning General Grant to full-time service with the Commission, an action which will be appreciated by all who know of General Grant's previous work in Washington.
Excerpts from the President's letter follow:
"I have been following with particular interest the very sub- stantial progress of the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission, under your leadership, as Chairman in charting the future of the National Capital. The
work of the Commission is enter- ing upon a particularly vital phase when the results of the planning effort of several years are to be implemented through concrete proposals for action. Such a program urgently demands continuous leadership and direc- tion, and it occurs to me it should now be possible for you to devote your full time to that task. "I know how well aware you are of the profound changes in the met- ropolitan area of the Capital which have been brought about by war construction. I know you are aware of the changes which will be necessary. Certainly no Ameri- can is so familiar as you are with the problems involved in making the American Capital a city worthy in every respect of the victorious American Nation. I have always felt that Washington should be not only a beautiful capital but, in all its plannings, a model for metropolitan develop*
25
Planning and Civic Comment
ment in America. I am asking you duties as Chairman of the Corn- to accept this significant assign- mission only because of the in- ment with full understanding of creasing importance of the work of the importance I attach to its that organization." accomplishment. In conformity with the wishes of "I realize fully the sacrifice you the President, on April 3, 1944, would be making in giving up the War Department relieved your work with the Office of General Grant of his assignment Civilian Defense before the end of with the Office of Civilian De- hostilities, and I am urging you to fense. devote your full time to your
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
These park agencies contributed the photographs shown on the following pages:
BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS DAVENPORT, IOWA
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES CLEVELAND, OHIO
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DETROIT, MICHIGAN
DIVISION OF PARKS AND RECREATION ST. Louis, MISSOURI
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
PARK AND RECREATION BOARD BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF CITY PARK NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
26
Scenes from three of the 21 parks in Davenport, Iowa, are shown be- low. The Junior Golf Tournament in Duck Creek Park refutes the opinion held by some that golf is an old man's game. Twins are al-
ways interesting, whether of the species Homo sapiens or like those in Fejerery Park Zoo. The popularity of the wading pool in Lafayette Square is apparent.
A zoo dressed in circus clothes is about the ultimate in child appeal. This asser- tion is borne out by the crowd gathered for the opening of the show by Cleveland's traveling zoo, and by the expressions of the gallery watching the antics of the cast. This 1943 innovation visited 150 play- spots in the City and County and was viewed by more than 250,000 children and adults.
The Hungarian garden is one of the City's 17 cultural gardens sponsored and built by the people of many nationalities who have made Cleveland their home.
The photographs in this Parks Section show a jew oj our municipal parks and some of their uses. Others were shown in the October 1943 issue.
Belle Isle, acquired by the City oj Detroit in 1879, is one of the Nation's best known parks. The "winter wonderland1' and the Sunday morning model yacht races are among the many attractions oj this famous island in the Detroit River.
The shady retreat in the 1200-acre River Rouge Park lures De- troiters on summer days. The park also offers an 18-hole golf course, three outdoor swimming pools, two wading pools, and several picnic grounds.
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gn <•<! f is&^* • ; • «AXi»Sr/^
"ourtesy Detroit News
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Polar bears are always popular at the zoo. Those shown in St. Louis Zoological Park appear to be beg- ging peanuts from visitors. The rock work is a replica of limestone formations found on the bluffs along the Mississippi.
Seasonal displays in Jewel Box at St. Louis' Forest Park are visited by thousands.
tto* Wi , -J
• ,.
,',.
Chicago's outer drive passes through Jackson Park in close proximity to Lake Michigan beaches {Cover}.
Columbus Park brings into the city a typical Illinois landscape reproduced by Jens Jensen.
The swimming pools in Wash- ington Park are enjoyed by the Negro.
Jackson Park with the outer yacht harbor in the foreground is the site of the World's Fair of 1893. University of Chicago and Midway Plaisance appear in the upper left, and the Museum of Science and Industry at the end of the lagoon.
*.ftfMft«
Scenes of mirrored beauty in Louisville's {Kentucky} Seneca Park invite rest and relaxation.
Artists catch the tranquility of Cherokee Park.
Stage productions in the amphitheatre at Iroquois Park are well attended.
Birmingham, Ala- bama, playground scene in Jordan Park located in a populous south side neighbor- hood.
The formal develop- ment in downtown Woodrow Wilson Park will be part of Bir- mingham's civic center upon completion of the new city hall on the west side of the park, which has been planned as a postwar project.
" s«i
1
Development of New Orleans' 1500-acre City Park near Lake Pon- chartrain began in 1891 when the City Park Improvement Association took over the original 85 acres. The girls are skating along Anseman Avenue entrance paralleling the playgrounds.
State Park
The National Park Service reports that as of April 1, 59 state park ad- ministrative agencies have filled out and returned the forms "Annual Records on State Park Lands and Related Areas" for the fiscal year ending in 1943. It is hoped that quite a complete coverage may be obtained this year.
Alabama: James L. Segrest, act- ing Chief of the Division of Parks, Monuments and Historical Sites since the death of Parks Chief James M. White last September, has been named to the latter' s post by Conservation Director Ben C. Morgan.
California: Brig. Gen. Warren Thomas Hannum, Retired, has been appointed Director of Natural Re- sources. William H. Moore, who has been serving temporarily as Acting Director, has returned to his regular position in the Department of Finance.
Additions comprising 661 acres, valued at over $74,000, have been added recently to the State Park System. This includes lands ad- joining Children's Forest and the Garden Club of America Grove in Humboldt County and Parcel 3, Unit II of Mill Creek Redwoods State Park.
The following definition of state parks appeared in the October issue
of the Division of Parks and Beaches monthly publication which was sub- sequently named Park News and Views:
State parks are lands held and managed by the State expressly for the purpose that the people of the State shall be able, by access to them, forever, to enjoy certain things of state-wide interest and impor- tance of which the people would otherwise become deprived. Chief among those things are: (1) natural scenery of unusual beauty; (2) natural objects of unusual educational and scientific value, such as rare kinds and combinations of trees, plants, and wild life, and of forms of earth, rocks and waters; (3) objects of state- wide historical interest; (4) areas specifically adapted to such activities as camping, boating, fishing, bathing, hiking, and other characteristics of life in the open, all with special reference to their inspirational and recreational value for refreshment and up- building of body and mind.
Connecticut: Donald Alexander, Administrative Director for the State Park and Forest Commission, reports that plans for the future con- template a major program of park development designed to open up many areas previously inaccessible. The program includes also the re- pair and replacement of many structures which have served their purpose admirably in the past, but are now showing the effects of ex- tensive use and are rather obsoles- cent as compared with similar facilities in state park systems of many of the other States which have had more funds for such purposes.
43
Planning and Civic Comment
The Commission has presented a proposal for park development to the Postwar Planning Board for consideration and approval. The estimated cost of the development totals $3,500,000 and is based upon a six-year program.
Michigan: The conservation-con- scious Michigan Legislature, during the extra February session, appro- priated $5,000,000 for the purchase of recreational lands. One-fifth of this sum is authorized for imme- diate expenditure for the acquisition of the Upper Peninsula's Porcupine Mountains area, long advocated for national park purposes. Whether this famous hemlock-hardwood for- est area will be retained as a state park or transferred to the Federal Government as an addition to the National Park System is being left for future determination. Certainly the area meets national park ob- jectives, although the principal achievement, and a very great one, lies in finally having assured the preservation of a substantial portion of this magnificent forest and lake wilderness.
Over a five-year period sums total- ing $3,000,000 are authorized for expenditure by the State for lands in southeastern Michigan that were described in the January issue; and sums totaling $1,000,000 are author- ized for expenditure by the Huron- Clinton Metropolitan Authority for its acquisition program. Expendi- tures by the Authority must be matched by equal sums derived from local taxation.
Hats off to the people of Michi- gan!
North Carolina: Superintendent of Parks Thomas W. Morse entered
on duty with the Navy on March 9.
South Carolina: Charles H. Flory has succeeded as State Forester William C. Hammerlee, who re- signed February 1 to accept another position.
Texas: Benston Rio Grande Val- ley State Park, a 587-acre tract of virgin border timber four miles southwest of Mission, was donated to the State on January 28 by Lloyd and Elmer Benston. J. V. Ash, Chairman of Texas State Parks Board, accepted the deed on behalf of the Board during a program at Whalen clubhouse east of McAIlen.
Washington: The state park sys- tem has been enlarged recently by the purchase of an additional one and one-half miles of roadside forest bordering the Natchez Pass State Highway, near Greenwater on the White River approach to Mount Rainier National Park. $130,000 for this purpose was voted at the last session of the Legislature. This addition adjoins the existing state park purchased by the Federation of Women's Clubs and will thus pro- tect three miles or more of the best virgin forest remaining along the highway, and will supplement the Mather Memorial Parkway in pre- serving a fine approach to Mount Rainier.
Ontario, Canada: Word has been received from representatives of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests that two areas bordering on Lake Superior have been established as provincial parks. Sibley Pro- vincial Park is located approxi- mately 20 miles from Isle Royale National Park. Lake Superior Park, is located about 80 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie.
44
IN MEMORIAM
RICHARD LIEBER
1869-1944
The unexpected death of Richard Lieber of Indiana, in the opinion of this writer, robbed the cause of con- servation of natural resources of the United States of the most powerful figure in the field.
Colonel Lieber brought to bear in behalf of creation of parks, the men- tal resources of a naturally gifted and highly educated man, a student of history, coupled with deep inter- est in welfare, and clear under- standing of the biological impor- tance of scenes preserved because of their historic or scenic value.
He shared with his dear friend and co-worker Stanley Coulter an appre- ciation of natural scenes as an in- fluence upon human lives which a classical education increases.
His conception of wilderness parks was unrelated to that of persons who see in them reserves for adults com- parable to playgrounds for children. To him they were forests of refuge for the town-weary, world-weary or work-weary, offering something akin to the relief-from-tension which the six cities of refuge in Jewish an- tiquity gave to those who had taken human life without criminal inten- tion, at the same time giving the contemplative the opportunity, which isolation that is not immure- ment, provides.
But Colonel Lieber's approach to conservation of natural resources was that of the practical man who knows what are the foundations of lasting national strength.
Fortunately, late in life, he wrote
a book — published by Harper's. It revealed him as a student of eco- nomic problems in which soil, water, wild life are factors; as an author whose realization that on right land use depends national wealth.
Colonel Lieber is credited gener- ally with outstanding leadership in the movement which gave to In- diana an exemplary statewide sys- tem of State Parks in which practical use is made of scenes which merit preservation. The Indiana park system will be a lasting monument to him. His name will be always associated with it regardless of what its developments may be. But Colonel Lieber was recognized by his contemporaries as far more than a park-maker merely.
He was for some time head of Indiana's Department of Conserva- tion, but nobody thought of him as one whose interest in his public office was comparable with his in- terest in his work. His interest in the project in which he had been en- gaged officially did not subside when he was no longer in office, and he praised generously the good work that was done after his service.
Colonel Lieber was fortunate in enjoyment of a fairly long life, made happy by a marriage which became an ideal life-partnership. He was fortunate in enjoyment of health; in reaching death by an easfer way than that of those who fade and fail but for a long time live, severely handicapped by disability or suffer- ing.
45
Planning and Civic Comment
His cultural interests could not be covered here. His personal qualities, revealed in long acquaintance, in lasting friendship, were such that he is widely and deeply mourned. As a conversationalist, a raconteur, his accomplishments were such that where he sat was the head of the table. As a citizen he was keenly, ardently, aware of the advantages of citizenship in the United States, and always deeply loyal.
—TOM WALLACE, Louisville, Ky.
Future historians will make the proper appraisal of Richard Lieber, the conservationist and park builder. It is inevitable that from the ac- cumulating evidence and enduring records of his uncounted services and significant public works, grate- ful generations will commemorate his name. It is proper that we who are his contemporaries, forego the pleasure of attempting the analysis of his true greatness, since they who follow will reap the major benefits of his teaching and vigorous crusades and thereby gain a better gauge of his giant stature.
What is here purported is of a more personal nature — an acknowl- edgment of his strong influence upon the lives and activities of his friends and associates — a tribute to the character and personality of "the Colonel/'
To those of us who thought we knew him well, Colonel Lieber was a strange mixture of austere ex- terior and unexpected warmth with- in. Against the casual approach of strangers he protected the softness of his ego with barbed thrusts of wit
and illustrative anecdote of broad humor. He won respect for his in- tellect, comprehensive vision and driving force on the one hand, and with the other gathered young associates into the sanctum of his affection. His ever readiness to battle for principles or ideals was a characteristic that made friend and foe, alike, hold him in awe. His re- sourcefulness to retire from an ap- parent defeat through prepared exits of compromise created the il- lusion of victory which made him in- defeatable.
His physical presence had that dynamic quality that commanded attention on all occasions. Such was the established confidence in his leadership that his domination over any group or gathering was the accepted and unresented normal.
This long dependence on his vi- brant capabilities and directional hand makes possible the concept that he will continue to guide the park and conservation movement in this country indefinitely. There will not soon come another to take his place — "the Colonel" will carry on through his many lieutenanits and firmly fixed policies.
We who have been privileged to be "his boys" are grateful for the purpose he gave to our lives and work anxi will cherish the recollec- tion of those precious hours spent with him in stimulating endeavor and vitalizing re-creation.
We anticipate with pleasure our enviable position to participate in the inevitable increasing growth of the already legendary character of "the Colonel."
— PAUL V. BROWN, Indianapolis, Ind.
46
Planning and Civic Comment
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park Project
As part of its ambitious postwar development plan for Napa County, "garden valley of California" north of the Bay of San Francisco, the Napa Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a state park on Mount Saint Helena. This park is to be a memorial to Robert Louis Steven- son. It was here that the famous Scotch writer spent his honeymoon in 1880, camping out with his bride, the former Fanny Van de Grift Os- bourne of Oakland, in a miners' dormitory beside the Silverado Mine. The region and its people were faithfully portrayed in Stevenson's "The Silverado Squatters," which remains an accurate guide book for today.
Mount Saint Helena is of interest to the California State Park Com- mission, not only as a literary shrine, and pioneer museum, but also as the most concentrated quicksilver min- ing region of the world. Here, on the widespread skirts of the mountain named in 1841 for the wife of the Russian commander at Fort Ross, are more than fifty quicksilver mines.
Four hundred acres of virgin for- est, representative of the mixed woods of the Coast Range, at the crest of the state highway over the lower range of the mountain, are for sale and likely to be despoiled un- less rescued for park purposes. In- cluded in the property are the famous old Toll House and the re- mains of the Silverado Mine. The price is $14,000.00, half of which must be raised by private sub- scriptions. Jack Behrens, secretary
of the Napa Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park Fund, reports much interest but urgent need for cash.
A State Park of Oregon Myrtle Trees
In the rush of war, Oregon's unique stand of myrtle trees may be lost to the world. Shimmering like emer- alds on green velvet, these ever- greens highlight the forests of South- ern Oregon, and are found there alone. Those of the Holy Land are not the same. The Palestine counter- part is more nearly like the wild olive. The myrtles of Southwest Oregon are extremely rare, almost impossible to transplant, and tedi- ously slow of growth. Anyone who has seen the symmetrical cone- shaped myrtle, some standing 35 or 40 feet high, some taller and thick of girth, displacing in beauty every other tree around it; or who has owned a novelty made from its richly colored and intricately grained wood, is not happier to know that men in whose custody God has put its meager stand, are cutting myrtle into frictidn blocks for use in ship- yards. Maple or oak or any other wood, protestants declare, would be as useful as myrtle for this purpose, and closer to the shipyards, besides being many times more abundant. Plans for conserving the myrtle glory of Coos, Curry and Douglas Coun- ties are being proposed by men who have seen and appreciated the rare and scenic beauty of the area. Oregon should have one inviolable state myrtle park.
(Editorial from Oregon Journal, March 5, 1944)
47
Specifications for State Park Superintendents
In 1943 the Louisiana Department of State Civil Service, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Park Com- mission, established job specifica- tions for two classes of state park superintendents. As a result of its study the Department recognized also a third class of superintendent with a higher salary scale, but as yet the State has no position that falls within its concept of such a classi- fication.
During the course of its study the Department obtained from other state and Federal agencies, includ- ing the National Park Service, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the state park administering agen- cies in Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Tennessee, copies of park superintendent specifications and opinions concerning qualifica- tions, duties and salary scales.
It is believed that those concerned with the administration of state parks will be interested in the specifications for the two classes of park superintendents in Louisiana, which are reproduced below.
PARK SUPERINTENDENT I
Kind of Work — Supervisory work in the operation and maintenance of a small state park; and related work as required.
Distinguishing Features oj Work — This work involves minor super- visory responsibility for laying out, supervising, and participating in the work incidental to the maintenance and repair of buildings, grounds, roads, and equipment in a small state park or historical site. Part of this work is concerned with making
available to the public the recrea- tional facilities of the park. Small groups of laborers are supervised in seasonal and routine tasks. General assignments are outlined by super- visors who inspect the work par- ticularly for the general appearance of the park.
Examples oj Work (Note: These examples are intended only as illus- trations of the various types of work performed in positions allocated to this class.) Assigns, supervises and assists several unskilled or semi- skilled workers engaged in tasks such as: Mowing, trimming, and raking grassed areas; pruning shrubbery and trees; removing dead or broken branches and cutting them into cord wood; cutting weeds; repairing and maintaining buildings, small boat docks, picnic tables, small water supply and waste disposal systems, and park equipment; and cleaning and preparing park grounds and facilities for summer use.
Meets the public and gives in- formation about park facilities, ex- plaining the area's historical signif- icance, and giving information on local birds and animals. Inspects and polices grounds and buildings, and provides for the safety and welfare of visitors.
Requisitions materials and sup- plies, keeps records, and makes re- ports.
Necessary knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (At time of appointment). Knowledge of park maintenance methods and procedures. Knowl- edge of the operation, care, and re- pair of park equipment. Ability to supervise and direct laborers in
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Planning and Civic Comment
maintenance and repair operations. Ability to meet the public and give information regarding the park fa- cilities, and to provide for the safety and welfare of visitors. Ability to keep simple records and make re- ports.
Desirable Preparation for Work — Any combination of experience and training which would indicate pos- session of the knowledges, skills, and abilities listed above. An ex- ample of an acceptable combination is: Experience in park maintenance work, preferably involving public contact responsibility. Completion of the eleventh school grade.
PARK SUPERINTENDENT II
Kind of Work — Supervisory work involving the management and main- tenance of a moderate sized and well- developed state park; and related work as required.
Distinguishing Features of Work — Work involves responsibility for managing a moderate sized and well-developed state park to secure maximum utilization of the area and its facilities and structures. Major emphasis is placed upon the plan- ning and development of programs designed to promote interest in and use of the park's recreational and educational resources by the public. Incumbents are responsible for the maintenance and protection of the area which includes administration buildings, cottages, camp sites, play grounds, water systems, lighting systems, sanitary systems, and simi- lar improvements. Supervision is exercised over all employees working at the park. Work is supervised by the State Parks Director and is limited in scope to the general
policies of the State Parks Com- mission.
Examples of Work (Note: These examples are intended only as illus- trations of the various types of work performed in positions allocated to this class.) In cooperation with the State Parks Director, formulates and executes plans and programs designed to secure the best utiliza- tion of the park and its resources. Promotes and publicizes through various media the facilities and activities of the area. Interprets the significance of the area's educa- tional and recreational possibilities for the general public. Meets with the public and gives information concerning the services furnished by the park, the history of the park, and the flora and fauna found in the park. Supervises and directs employees in maintenance and re- port activities; inspects grounds and buildings. Assists in furthering wild- life and game control programs. Provides for the safety and welfare of visitors. Makes out and submits reports about the park's activities, including requisitions for supplies, employee payrolls, rental receipts, and other business matters. Con- ducts correspondence regarding park material; confers with State Parks Director on important problems.
Necessary Knowledges, Skills, and Abilities — Knowledge and appre- ciation of the principles, purposes, and practices involved in the plan- ning and development of outlying parks. Some knowledge of the plant life and wild life of the state. Some knowledge of the business methods necessary to the operation of a public service agency. Ability to organize and direct educational and
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Planning and Civic Comment
recreational activities. Ability to secure public cooperation and in- terest in the park utilization pro- gram. Ability to supervise employ- ees engaged in construction and maintenance work. Ability to for- mulate and enforce protective regu- lations.
Desirable Preparation for Work — Several years of supervisory ex- perience in the operation and main- tenance of parks or recreation areas. Graduation from a recognized col- lege or university with major work in arts and sciences.
The North Carolina Recreation Committee
Some months ago Governor J. Melville Broughton appointed the North Carolina Recreation Com- mittee. It was evident that many local communities throughout the State needed assistance in planning recreation programs, in securing supplementary resources, and ob- taining advice in procedure of opera- tion. The promotion of the war effort had brought into the State an unusually large number of men of the armed forces and industrial workers. An adequate recreation program for these men and women along with wholesome activities for the general civilian population be- came a challenge and a joint re- sponsibility of the Federal Govern- ment, the state government and the local community. Nationally, re- gionally, and in communities them- selves the field of recreation is being given impetus because of the war program. Officialdom of North Carolina, in cooperation with the Office of Civilian Defense, the Federal Security Agency, and the University of North Carolina, de- veloped the State Committee plan.
The Committee is organized on a functional basis covering the major fields of recreation. There are six general groupings: First, the ex- officio group consisting of the Gover-
nor, the Director of OCD, the Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, Superintendent of Public Wel- fare, the Director of the Department of Conservation and Development, Dean of Agricultural Extension, and the Director of the University Ex- tension Division.
War Services form the second group consisting of representatives of the FSA, FWA, USO, American Red Cross, military representatives and Federal Housing.
The third group consists of public recreation representatives — Federal, state, county, municipal and in- stitutional.
Private recreation is represented in the fourth group by children's groups, youth groups for boys and girls, religious groups, fraternal and patriotic organizations and social recreation in general.
The fifth category comprises com- mercial recreation interests, con- sisting of representatives from the motion pictures, radio, amusement agencies and professional sports.
Then, there is a special recreation interests group which includes art, music, dramatics, physical fitness, camping, libraries, industrial recrea- tion, the Negro, and associations.
Committee members are special- ists in their fields. Each has or-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ganized a sub-committee through which the special interest is pro- moted.
The objectives of the State Com- mittee may be summed up as follows :
1. To integrate the programs of all agencies and organizations interested in recreation and allied fields — public and private — for the purpose of working out a joint approach to communities thereby eliminating confusion and duplication of effort.
2. To increase and improve recreational opportunities in all areas affected by the war program.
3. To stimulate Statewide interest in the importance of recreation as a basic re- source in the total mobilization program.
4. To promote recreational planning on a Statewide basis.
5. To encourage community action in meeting recreational needs.
6. To promote measures to accomplish these objectives.
The Committee has worked out a Twenty- Point Program for the State which acts as a code of procedure.
The office of the State Committee is located in Chapel Hill, seat of the University, and functions on a full time basis. Distribution of books and bulletins and various recreation information, services to communi- ties, organization of recreation com- mittees, study of recreation laws
within the State, direct connection with Federal agencies working in North Carolina, close cooperation with military leaders, special work with communities where military and industrial groups have located, wider use of our natural resources — national parks and forests, state parks, forests, game preserves and the like; meetings, conferences and institutes, and the promotion of wholesome recreation programs is a partial list of some of the interests engaging the Committee at the present time.
It is believed that state machinery for the clearance and interchange of information on recreation, for stimu- lation and strengthening of local recreation organizations are func- tions for which the State should assume responsibility in the same sense that it now does for education, health, and welfare services.
The work of the Committee is moving forward very rapidly, and the services rendered, now and in the future, should bring to the State a proportionate share of recreation that will add to the sum total of abundant living in North Carolina.
Recent Court Decisions
Compiled by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Counsel, APCA
Urban Redevelopment Corporations
Law — Constitutionality
The opinion of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in this case was briefed in the January number of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT. The case involves the clearance of a blighted area on the lower East Side of New York City for a development project of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com-
pany. The present case was before the court of last resort, and it is to be noted that the dissenting opinion of the chief justice and one associate judge was for the same reasons as the dissenting opinion of two justices in the lower court.
In affirming the majority opinion of the lower court, the Court of Ap- peals said on the question of the validity of the use of the power of
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Planning and Civic Comment
eminent domain: "Nor do we find warrant in the argument that un- constitutionally results from the fact that the statute permits the city to exercise the power of eminent domain to accomplish a project from which a private corporation may ultimately reap a profit. If, upon completion of the project, the public good is enhanced, it does not matter that private interests may be bene- fitted."
The dissenting opinion was based on the provision in a constitutional amendment that the power of emi- nent domain may not be granted to a private corporation unless the corporation is regulated by law as to rents, profits, dividends and the disposition of its property or fran- chises. Since a corporation under the urban redevelopment statute can free itself if it chooses from regula- tions imposed by the statute, or can transfer its property to a corpora- tion which is not regulated, the dis- senting justices were of opinion that such corporations did not fall within the class to which the power of eminent domain could be granted, and that consequently it would be illegal for the city to use the power of eminent domain and then transfer the property taken under that power to a private corporation which itself did not have the power of eminent domain.
Murray et al V. LaGuardia et al. New York Court of Appeals, 291 N.Y. p. 320, December 1943.
Zoning — Exclusion oj Small Houses The City of Huntington Woods, Michigan, prohibited in the residen- tial zone the erection of houses having less than 1300 square feet of floor area. The premises in question were
part of a subdivision in which 378 houses had been built and 465 lots remained to be developed for resi- dences. Of the houses built both be- fore and after the adoption of the zoning ordinance, 83 percent com- plied with the specified floor area or were within 100 square feet of the requirement.
The plaintiff, Senefsky, was de- nied a permit for a smaller house, and in the lower court the trial judge refused to order a building permit issued, expressly finding that a lesser restriction on floor area would disregard the character of the residential district, the general trend and character of buildings, the peculiar suitability of the area for a residential use, and the effort to con- serve values.
The Supreme Court reversed this decision in a divided opinion, six judges holding that the restriction in no way promoted public health, safety, etc., that a healthful home could be built of four rooms and a kitchen which would occupy less than 800 square feet.
The case of Brookdale Homes, Inc. v. Johnson, 123 N.J.L. p. 602, was cited with approval.
The two dissenting judges relied on the statement in the state zoning enabling act that there must be con- sideration of the character of a dis- trict, and of conservation of existing values, and held where the question was at least debatable under all the circumstances, the legislative agency was the best judge. They expressly found that "power to regulate size implies authority to fix a minimum as well as a maximum."
Note. This Michigan case and the New Jersey case above referred to
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Planning and Civic Comment
are of special interest in view of the provision for minimum size of resi- dences now found in several zoning ordinances, and the growing feeling that such a provision is necessary to maintain residential values and an equitable distribution of the tax bur- den.
Senefsky v. Lawler, Superintendent of Public Works of City of Huntington Woods, Michigan. 12 N.W. 2nd, p. 387. Michigan Supreme Court, December, 1943.
Zoning — Non- conforming Use —
Abandonment
Where the facts were that the premises had been for many years used as a slaughterhouse, but in 1938 all visible machinery had been disposed of, a smoke stack 150 feet high taken down, all the property offered for sale and one parcel sold, there was held to be an abandon- ment of non-conforming use in spite of the owner's testimony that he in- tended to resume the slaughtering business when conditions were fa- vorable. Consequently the applica- tion for permit to use the premises for junk business (also a non-con- forming use) was ordered denied and the lower court's decision was re- versed.
Beyer et al v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. 34 Atl., 2nd, p. 765. Mary- land Court of Appeals, December, 1943.
Premises which were the subject of this appeal were by the zoning or- dinance of Wauwatosa passed in 1921 placed in a zone for one- and two-family houses. Originally a single-family house, there was evi- dence of occupancy by several families before the adoption of the zoning ordinance, but from 1922 to 1928 it was occupied by two families only. There was one kitchen and one
bathroom on both the first and second floors during this period. In 1931 the second floor was remodeled and in 1936 the first floor was re- modeled, each for two apartments, and later the third floor was changed for the occupancy of one family. For none of these changes was any application for permit made.
The Board of Appeals found on these facts that any non-conforming use which existed at the time of the adoption of the zoning ordinance was discontinued in 1922 and that consequently the remodeling in 1931 and later years was in violation of the zoning ordinance. In the first trial of the case the lower court found sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion of the Board of Ap- peals, and the Supreme Court con- firmed that judgment.
State ex rel. Robst v. Board of Ap- peals of Wauwatosa. 13 N.W. 2nd, p. 64. Wisconsm Supreme Court, February, 1944.
Zoning — Business Use — Spot Zoning The zoning ordinance of Macon, Georgia, provided that within 400 feet of certain streets and avenues only homes, apartments and churches could be built, but properties used for business could be continued in that use and on approval by mayor and council could be changed to an- other business use. The property in question was originally a large resi- dence which had been bought by the city and for several years had been used as an armory. It had recently been sold to Snow and others who were preparing to use it as a funera I home, relying on the provisions in the zoning ordinance.
The lower court granted an in- junction against Snow and others and the Supreme Court affirmed this
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Planning and Civic Comment
decision on two grounds. It found that the use of the premises as an armory was not a business use and that consequently the exception in the zoning ordinance did not apply. Secondly, even if mayor and council by their action in approving the conversion of the premises to a different use could be said to have by ordinance amended the zoning ordinance, such an amendment was unreasonable and arbitrary since it made an exception of only one house and lot.
Snow et al, v. Johnston et al. 28 S.E., 2nd, p. 270. Georgia Supreme Court, November, 1943.
But it is not spot zoning in the view of the Utah Supreme Court to establish in residential districts small business districts for the greater convenience of the inhabi- tants of these districts. Such a dis- trict may be just the four corners made by intersecting streets. The actual size of the district so long as it is reasonable and for the public good may be left to the legislative body.
Marshall v. Salt Lake City. 141 Pac. 2nd, p. 704. Utah Supreme Court, September, 1943.
Zoning — Accessory Use
Where the application was for a permit to build in the rear of a resi-
dence a conservatory 1 1 feet by 24 feet for the cultivation of exotic plants and flowers for the personal use of the owner of the residence, the court held that the Building Com- missioner was wrong in denying a permit and the lower court was wrong in refusing to order the per- mit issued. This was not a "green- house," which was prohibited by the zoning ordinance, but a proper ac- cessory use. In the text of the ordinance "greenhouse" is asso- ciated with "stock farm, truck gar- den and nursery," and must take its meaning from that context.
Kenney v. Building Commissioner of Melrose. 52 N.E. 2nd, p. 683. Massachu- setts Supreme Court, December, 1943.
But where the defendant ran his truck into a garage in the rear of his house to keep perishable fruit on the truck from freezing, the court held that this was not a proper accessory use of the garage, even though no business was transacted either at his house or in the garage. The defend- ant was found guilty of a misde- meanor in the lower court in this violation of the zoning ordinance, and the judgment was affirmed in the Supreme Court.
People v. Scrafano, 12 N.W. 2nd, p. 325. Michigan Supreme Court, December, 1943.
SOS Call— Jackson Hole in Jeopardy
Conservationists will be sorry to learn that after the Watch Service Report was made up, proponents of the Barrett Bill to abolish Jackson Hole National Monu- ment secured a rule to bring the bill up on the floor of the House. If our readers wish to help save Jackson Hole National Monument {See last four issues of Planning and Civic Comment/ they will wire their Congressmen immediately oppos- ing H. R. 2241.
54
American Institute of Planners Elects New Officers
At a meeting of the American Institute of Planners in Chicago, April 30th, the following officers were elected: President, Harold M. Lewis, Con- sulting Engineer, New York, N. Y. ; Vice-president, Earl O. Mills, Planning Consultant, St. Louis, Mo.; Secretary-Treasurer, Professor Frederick J. Adams, in charge of the City Planning course at MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
Newly elected members of the Board of Governors are: Russell V. Black, New Hope, Pa.; Howard K. Menhinick, Knoxville, Tenn.; L. Deming Tilton, San Francisco, Calif. Other members of the Board of Governors are: Justin Hartzog, John Ihlder, Charles W. Eliot, 2nd; Earl S. Draper, Lawrence M. Orton.
Headquarters will be established at 77 Massachusetts Avenue (Room 7- 231, MI T) Cambridge 39, Mass., and the Executive Secretary will be Draveaux Bender.
A Board of Editors appointed for the Planner's Journal will include Paul Oppermann as editor, and Lawrence Orton and Harold W. Lautner as assistant editors, supplemented by a large group of regional correspondents.
Planning Officials Meet
The Annual Conference of the American Society of Planning Officials, held in Chicago May 1-3, was well attended and there was a large partici- pation in the discussions by the delegates. Versatile Mayor Wyatt of Louisville spoke effectively on a variety of subjects. The address which lingers in the minds of those who heard him was that of David Lilienthal on "The People's Stake in Planning." His presentation of the democratic accomplishments in the Tennessee Valley was very convincing.
Indiana's Postwar Planning Conference
The Indiana Economic Council, at the Conference which it sponsored in Indianapolis on May 8 and 9, gave a convincing demonstration that the Council is working closely with state and local officials to prepare a postwar program. Resolutions were adopted recommending legislation to permit cities to create reserve funds and to broaden the local tax base, to transfer the collection of certain state income back to the cities, and to provide for an investigation of the real-estate tax base in order to develop an equitable method. The Benjamin Harrison Memorial plan of reforestation was en- dorsed. The re-establishment of the Division of State Publicity was recom- mended. The Council was asked to continue its studies on postwar trans- portation, including aviation. The Conference also adopted a resolution of appreciation of the service of the late Richard Lieber.
55
Three Significant Books on Foreign Policy
INTERNATIONAL BEARINGS OF AMERICAN POLICY. Albert Shaw. The Johns Hop- kins Press. 1943.
WE CANNOT ESCAPE HISTORY. John T. Whitaker. The MacMillan Co. 1943.
U. S. FOREIGN POLICY: SHIELD OF THE REPUBLIC. Walter LJppmann. Little, Brown and Co. 1943.
These three books provide wide horizons for those who would search the past in order to chart the future. Dr. Shaw has given us in his book "A sense of right direction" in spite of the fact that it often "requires years of vexing delay to bring a particular situation to a right and therefore a permanent ending." Dr. Shaw traces the ideals of American leaders through seeming successes and temporary failures. His intimate connection with the actors in the passing scene over a period of sixty years gives his accounts of events and his interpretations unusual sig- nificance. Dr. Shaw believes that out of these successes and failures we are working our way to a better international understanding, but in the postwar period he warns us:
There will be hunger riots and political chaos in many places. For several years the shocks of ill-disciplined peace-time may be almost as violent as those of war. Social and political recovery in occupied European countries will be a slow and painful process. It will require inter- national supervisipn. Public-health meas- ures and systematic efforts to produce and distribute food, will be quite as essential for some time to come as international agencies to furnish police protection.
In his final words Dr. Shaw indi- cates the slow but sure histriocal trend:
The present war period has already added much to our knowledge of the inter- esting and terrifying world in which we live; and it is to be expected that when
peace is established it will be upon terms widely different from those of 1919. It will have a more comprehensive scope, not so didactic and prim, and more tolerant because less narrow-minded. Union lies in the conceptions and purposes of well- disposed men; and this union of minds will create its own institutions.
Mr. Whitaker has taken the well- known quotation from Abraham Lincoln to indicate the inevitable re- sults in our time of actions and deci- sions reached when we were young or long before we were born. He has recounted his experiences in Germany, Italy, France, Great Brit- ain, the Soviet Union and Japan. Of the peace to come, he declares :
The American and allied occupation forces can minister to the needs of the con- quered peoples in the same moment that our summary courts mete out justice to their leaders — the men who bombed women and children in Nanking, Guer- nica, Warsaw, and Rotterdam; the men who murdered innocent hostages from Saint-Nazaire to Lidice. And we can help these peoples reestablish peacetime in- dustries and world trade in the same mo- ment that we enforce their disarmament for a period of time sufficient to guarantee their political evolution — because there must be an interim of force, but there must also be recognition that a peace of domina- tion cannot endure.
* * *
Mr. Lippmann's book appeared earlier in the year. He too, delves, in- to history to demonstrate that the United States never was in fact an Isolationist Nation, that we have had a fairly consistent foreign poli- cy. His historical review is illuminat- ing. He is more precise in his recommendations than either Dr. Shaw or Mr. Whitaker, and for that reason may prove less of a prophet, for it is difficult to predict the exact form of things to come.
56
Tile Map of the District of Columbia
The Tile Map of the District of Columbia and Vicinity is a minia- ture of a "Handkerchief Map" printed in 1933. It is a charming de- sign in black and white showing the original L' Enfant Plan and sur- rounding country with important landmarks, bordered by miniatures of notable buildings in and near the Federal City.
The original handkerchief map, which is now out of print, was de- signed by Miss Mildred Burrage and made available to the Committee by Frederic A. Delano, first Chairman of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
The handkerchief map was in- spired by a rare cloth map of the Capital City printed about 1792, a second edition of which appeared in 1796, presumably in connection with the auction sale of lots in the "new Federal town," and only a few of these early maps are in existence.
The tile map has been issued to help finance a program through which ten national professional and civic societies are endeavoring to stimulate nationwide interest in the development of the Federal City. Not only is the tile map a truly fine souvenir, suitable for a distinctive gift, useful as well as decorative since it is printed on heat-resistant "Py- raglass," but its possession is evi- dence of a contributing participa- tion in the safeguarding of the Federal City.
The edition is being apportioned among the member groups with only a limited quantity offered for sale to the general public. As the edition is
limited to 1000, it will take its place in time as a rare collectors' item. Each copy is numbered and the de- sign is protected by copyright. Copies may be obtained on order from the Treasurer, Joint Commit- tee on the National Capital, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D.C. The price is $2.50.
A Valuable Study
PRECAUTIONARY CAMOUFLAGE, PLANNING FOR Low VISIBILITY WITHOUT RELIANCE UPON ARTIFICIAL COVERINGS. OCD Publication 2019, Sept. 1943, Supt. of Documents, U. S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Price 15c.
This booklet, with an issue limited to 1,000 copies, presents a series of drawings, diagrams and photographs illustrating the principles and prob- lems of the science or act of pro- tective concealment. According to the author, it deals with a preventive policy that might be termed as pre- corrective as distinguished from cor- rective camouflage, a watchfulness of measures which, heeded at the beginning of a design, plan or con- struction procedure, should save tremendously in later need for, and employment of, corrective conceal- ment measures in areas subject to possible bombing.
The author, Mr. Greville Richard, A. I. A., Chief of the Camouflage Unit, and Lt. Col. Clifford H. Stem, Chief of the Engineer Section, under whose supervision the publi- cation was issued, are to be con- gratulated upon having produced an important contribution, which should be interesting to professional plan- ners and to the nontechnical reader.
57
Watch Service Report
Federal City
S. 1930— H. R. 4847, introduced by Senator Capper May 19 and by Mr. Randolph, May 22, 1944. This bill was drafted by Alfred Bettman, recognized legal authority on planning and zoning, and was considered by the Planning Commission in detail, after more than a year's study. The bill provides for the specific use planning of the project areas to be redeveloped in coordination with the comprehensive plans for the District and its environs, for the acquisition and assembly of the land in redevelopment project areas by a National Capital Land Agency to be created for this purpose, and for the selling or leasing of the redevelopment project areas to agencies or individuals, either public or private, who will carry out the redevelopment project area plan as a condition of the sale or lease. The National Capital Park and Planning Commission is indicated as the agency to make the comprehensive plan and to make the use plan of the redevelopment project area, subject to the approval of the D. C. Commissioners after a public hearing. The Land Agency would have the power of condemnation and would secure funds from the Federal Treasury and deposit revenues in the Treasury. As at present, acquisition of lands under the D. C. Alley Dwelling Authority would continue for five years, under plans approved by the Planning Commission and the District Commissioners.
S. 1923 — H. R. 4819, introduced by Senator Tydings May 17 and Mr. Randolph May 17, 1944. This bill borrows much of the language of S. 1930, but is loosely drawn. It en- larges the Land Agency, retains the right of condemnation, provides for private enter- prise only, provides subsidies by way of rent certificates to be redeemed from District appropriations, and designates the District of Columbia as the source of capital and the repository of revenues. No provision is made for reimbursement to the Government of losses incurred in purchase and sale of land.
S. 1699 — H. R. 4850, introduced by Senator McCarran, February 7 and by Mr. Ran- dolph, May 22, 1944. Amendment to the D. C. Alley Dwelling Act to provide for a Com- mission on Improvement Areas to determine the areas in the District, additional to the squares that contain inhabited alleys, that contain substandard housing conditions. The Authority would be authorized to borrow money from the Treasury of the U. S. to the amount of $20,000,000 to provide housing for persons of low income.
The Burton Sub-committee in the Senate held extensive hearings on the housing situation in the District during the autumn of 1943 and the spring of 1944. These bills will now be considered by a new sub-committee in the Senate and hearings began before a sub-committee of the District Committee in the House on May 23.
National Parks
H. R. 1388 (Jennings) introduced January 21, 1943. To authorize the acceptance of donations of land for the construction of a scenic parkway to provide an appropriate view of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the Tenriessee side of the Park. The right-of-way provided by this legislation will be of ah average of 125 acres per mile for its entire length. Passed House September 21, 1943; passed Senate February 15, 1944; approved February 22. Public Law No. 232.
H. R. 2241 (Barrett) introduced March 19, 1943. To abolish the Jackson Hole National Monument as created by Presidential Proclamation 2578, dated March 15, 1943, and to restore the area embraced within and constituting said monument to its status as part of Teton Natibnal Forest. This bill was reported out favorably with amendment by the Committee on Public Lands on December 17. On March 28, 1944 a report No.~ 1303 was issued by the Committee and the bill was committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the state of the Union. On May 15, 1944 the bill was called up and at the suggestion of Mr. Peterson (Fla.) it was passed over by unanimous consent.
Highways
H. R. 2426— S. 971 (Robinson of Utah-McKellar) introduced April 7, 1943. To supplement the Federal-aid Road Act approved July 11, 1916, as amended and supple- mented, to authorize appropriations for the postwar construction of greatly needed high- ways and bridges, to eliminate hazards at railroad-grade crossings, to provide for the im- mediate preparation of plans and acquisition of rights-of-way, to cushion the postwar conversion to peacetime economy, and for other purposes. Hearings have been completed on the House bill. This bill authorizes the appropriation of $3,000,000,000 at the rate of $1,000,000,000 a year for three successive postwar years. (Continued on page 68}
58
Grandfather Mountain. Shall it be Saved?
By HARLAN P. KELSEY, East Boxford, Mass.
"In the morning of the world a mighty convulsion heaved heaven- ward the Appalachian System — first- born of earth's mountain ranges." Some geologists say 140 million years ago, while others claim not less than 200 million years' antiquity; and so Grandfather Mountain, most rugged, picturesque and highest peak in the entire Blue Ridge Range was born.
Today this venerable landmark is clothed with an exquisite virgin mantle of rare forest trees and flowers; cold tumbling brooks cas- cade down its steep slopes under dense canopies of white and purple rhododendrons and mountain laurel of almost unbelievable size and luxuriance; in May and June on more open ridges the flame azalea, most gorgeous of American shrubs, flashes fire; while charming alpine- like plants in a hundred varieties fill every nook and crevice on its craggy summits.
From the sides of Grandfather Mountainburstforthice-coldsprings, the headwaters of many streams flowing westward by way of the Great Appalachian Valley to water the broad Tennessee and Mississippi basins, and eastward through the Piedmont plains to the Atlantic Ocean. It is surely the "Grand- father of Waters." To the south- west, Grandfather Mountain's jag- ged cliffs plunge precipitously 2,000 feet into the forest-clad valleys where the Linville and Watauga Rivers, paradises of the trout angler, begin their long journeys to the sea;
while to the north and east, long but- tressed ridges slope away for miles, giving birth to a hundred tumbling streams that in the upper foothills of the Piedmont, join together to form the fruitful Catawba River, whose controlled waters are incessently turning the powerful turbines that supply the electric energy for a new and amazing industrial Southland.
Just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and but a scant 10 miles to the south- east of Grandfather Mountain, the Linville River suddenly becomes the wildest and most picturesque stream of the Southern Appalachians, the valley culminating in a deep gorge with a descent of 2,000 feet in 20 miles from the beautiful Linville Falls to the foothills.
Grandfather Mountain towers above the surrounding mountains, and from its several summits a glorious panorama unfolds, with peaks and ridges rising one above and and beyond another for fifty or a hundred miles to the south, the west and the north, impressing upon the observer in a manner not to be for- gotten, the vastness of this region of mountains. "The varying degrees of haziness of the atmosphere, which has found expression in the name Blue Ridge, at times limits the dis- tance of distinct vision, but it com- bines with the forest cover to soften the details and to render this Southern Appalachian landscape at- tractive beyond comparison."
This is the "Land of the Sky," where the snowbird nests, and where on the heights in summer cool
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Planning and Civic Comment
breezes are born, which forever sweeping downward temper the hot valleys and plains far below to the east, south and west. The projec- tion far into the Southland of these lofty ancient Appalachians, greatest masses of mountains east of the Rockies and the highest mountains covered with hardwood forest in America, profoundly affected the civilization that so soon after the dis- covery of America was to be im- posed upon the Atlantic side of the continent.
To the steep mountainsides and into the fertile coves and valleys, came the hardiest and most virile of the invading tides of white men, to battle with Nature and carve new homes out of the wilderness, in- spired with the fierce desire for new freedoms, and security to work out their own destiny. And thereafter out of these same mountains have come brilliant statesmen and leaders in every line of endeavor to do their part in the building of a great America.
From the beginning these same energizing mountains have ever been the near and blessed Mecca for countless thousands of heat-weary dwellers of the lowlands of cotton, tobacco and corn, a vast plain spread fan-like from a mountain base to the distant Atlantic and Gulf coastlines; for here in pure un- tainted air they found in overflowing abundance rest, health and recrea- tion, in a setting of grand and inspir- ing landscapes.
However with the insistent eco- nomic demands of a fast-growing population, the virgin resources of soil and forest have been far too ruthlessly exploited, with little
thought of the future, and today the few remaining primeval wilderness areas are in imminent danger of de- spoliation. Already many of the choicest gems have been desecrated — some beyond regeneration, by cheap commercial exploitation for the temporary benefit of the few, the inevitable result of fatal complais- ance and lack of intelligent fore- thought and future planning for the good of all.
"The Blue Ridge Parkway is an elongated park with a scenic motor- way designed expressly for the tourist, threading the picturesque mountains between the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee. The parkway, first of its type and scale, will be 485 miles in length when completed. It averages 3,000 feet above sea level. It affords an un- usual opportunity to view the natural beauty of a country hereto- fore virtually inaccessible — a coun- try of bold panoramas, wild forest and exceptionally beautiful flora."*
At convenient intervals along this now famous parkway, recreation areas of outstanding scenic interest and varying from 500 to 10,000 acres in extent have been reserved, and provided with suitable camping fa- cilities. The land for this unique scenic travelway, together with its protective park-owned right-of-way averaging 1,000 feet in width, was purchased by the States of Virginia and North Carolina, and trans- ferred to the National Park Service in perpetuity, a most unusual and munificent gift to the people of our Nation. The war has halted con-
*NationaI Park Service statement.
60
. sC#%
'-XT . *fcl? ^#
»
Grandfather Mountain towers above the surrounding Blue Ridge peaks and affords from its several summits vast panoramas in every direction. It lies along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which connects the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks about half- way from Asheville and the Virginia-North Carolina state line at Cumberland Knob Park.
On the previous page is shown Yonahlossee Trail, now part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, on the northeast slopes of Grandfather Moun- tain.
Planning and Civic Comment
struction, yet already more than 360 miles of the project have been brought to various stages of completion.
The amazing record of visitors to the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, far out- numbering those to our older and larger parks in the West, is convinc- ing evidence of the vital need for set- ting aside and preserving inviolate before it is too late, every remaining suitable area still available. Thus may be assured, the highest value- use for the health and recreational needs of a congested and increasing Atlantic Seaboard and Mississippi Basin population. State parks an- swer the problem only in part.
Beyond all question, the most out- standing and superb feature along the entire Blue Ridge Parkway is Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, about two-thirds of the way from Shenandoah to the Great Smoky Mountains. The National Park Service considers it to be a vitally needed addition to the park- way, it is yet to be acquired and to- day is threatened with immediate calamitous destruction of its virgin glories by lumbering operations and other commercial exploitation.
The case for Grandfather Moun- tain is clear-cut and crystal-clear.
At the present time a 12,000-acre tract, including the dominant massif of Grandfather Mountain and its beautiful mate Grandmother Moun- tain, is offered for sale at a reason- able price. Together with contigu- ous lands partly now available it would constitute a superlative park of over 20,000 acres, with the highest naturalistic park standards, and be under the perpetual administration of the National Park Service.
If and when public ownership is consummated, the National Park Service plans the establishment of a major wayside rest and recreational camp on Grandmother Mountain in a suitable sheltered location adjoin- ing the Blue Ridge Parkway, where it will in no way detract from or mar the naturalistic features of the park.
This is an urgent challenge not only to Grandfather Mountain's homeland State of North Carolina, but to the entire Nation. Is it not an inescapable duty our citizens of to- day owe to succeeding generations, to save this masterpeice of Nature intact and unsullied? It is certainly a service which when accomplished, will for all time greatly redound to the honor of those who have had a part in preventing its destruction.
63
Book Reviews
MARGOLD, STELLA K. Housing Abroad up to World War II: Supplemented by Comparisons with Conditions in the United States. Prepared for the De- partment of Architecture, Massachu- setts Institute of Technology, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, 1942. Dis- tributed by Wittenborn and Company, New York. 314 pages. Price $2.50.
This is primarily an international comparison of housing legislation under the major headings: acquisi- tion of land, standards, and reduc- tion in basic costs of construction. Under "land" the comparisons are made under the headings: factors in determining choice of site: urban, suburban, and rural building sites; land purchase and ownership by governments, building societies, and private individuals; transfer of land, methods of land acquisition, con- demnation, expropriation, valuation and prevention of speculation.
Standards of occupancy and stan- dards of construction are sub- divided in equal detail in chapter 2. "Reduction in basic costs of con- struction" cover materials, the let- ting of contracts, labor, standardi- zation of design, and prefabrication.
Comparisons with conditions in the United States are dealt with under the headings: "government and private agencies, purchase of materials, contracting and labor problems, costs, standardization, new methods of construction, de- sign, and pre-fabricated houses."
The publications in the same field of the International Labour Office offer material on fewer countries so there is quite a bit of new material here. The author's failure to make much use of the I.L.O. publications makes it necessary for the reader to
make his own comparisons, and her failure to let the reader know in each instance the sources of the data offered will force the careful user to seek sources on his own. Neverthe- less this study is unquestionably useful in suggesting new ways of tackling old problems. It would be most helpful if in the second edition footnotes should be given for all references.
The preface is too modest, for Mrs. Margold is a person with con- siderable training in international law and economics, has traveled extensively, was for five years economist in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and above all has previously published in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in 1936 a very useful tabular study entitled Some Essen- tial Facts on Government- Aided Hous- ing in Western Europe, which I think should be incorporated as an appen- dix in this volume.
— JAMES FORD, Cambridge, Mass.
T V A DEMOCRACY ON THE MARCH. David E. Lilienthal. Harper & Bros. 1944.
Strange as it may seem, this book contains an account of real accom- plishment through democratic proc- esses utilized by a Federal agency which might have chosen the auto- cratic method. As Mr. Lilienthal confesses in the preface, he appears as a special advocate for the TVA. But what he sets forth appears to be accurate in fact and certainly no one can read his book without being stirred. He believes in the future of the Valley and its people. He be- lieves that the TVA had the choice
64
Planning and Civic Comment
of using science for evil or for good, and that having elected to strive for a high goal the people of the valley can make themselves free.
In his account one catches the ro- mance and promise of the river. In the recent floods which wrought such havoc along the Mississippi and its tributaries, the dams on the Tennessee protected the lands along its borders. The by-product of flood control actually did save the people from great losses.
Th^e TVA worked with the state and local governments through the established channels. No policies were imposed on any of these agen- cies. They cooperated with the TVA to advance the social and eco- nomic welfare of their people. Great use was made of the Federal Service agencies from the Departments of Agriculture and Interior. Soil Con- servation is being practiced and turning bankrupt farmers into pros- perous tillers of the soil. New towns have been built and occupied. Parks and recreation have been developed. Old towns are being improved. In fact, the objectives promised by modern planning are being realized.
Mr. Lilienthal believes in decen- tralization and has practiced it. He deplores remote control. He re- marks sagely that: "Decentraliza- tion frankly seeks to promote di- versity; centralization requires uni- formity and standardization." While TVA is supposed to be the planning agency for the region, there is no planning document. Rather there has been the conscious selection by the people of successive plans. And finally:
This experience convinces me that science and invention can be consciously
and deliberately directed to achieving the kind of world people want. If it is de- centralized industry men want, "family farming," or pleasant cities not too large, an end to smoke and congestion and filth — there are modern tools which can be turned to just such ends. The people, working through their private enterprises and public institutions which are democratic in spirit, can get substantially the kind of community and country they want.
The revenues from sale of power and other sources will effect amorti- zation of the millions invested in power, and in due time (perhaps two generations), the entire in- vestment of the people of the United States can be returned to the Treas- ury.
There is every indication that the TVA is on its way to a better life, indeed, has already achieved solid gains, unless politics is permitted to interfere with the high ideals and efficient practice of a staff chosen for merit alone.
PLANNING FOR THE SOUTH. John V. Van Sickle. Vanderbilt University Press. 1943.
Dr. Van Sickle, a product of Haverford and Harvard, with a liberal experience in the years fol- lowing World War I in various European countries, now, after sev- eral years in residence at Vanderbilt University, is able to see the prob- lems of the South objectively from without and sympathetically from within.
Dr. Van Sickle accepts the South- ern Region of eleven States out- lined by Dr. Howard Odum. After outlining the population trends, Dr. Van Sickle concludes that the South needs:
A more diversified agriculture, varied and prosperous industries, a marketing organization equipped to facilitate the
65
Planning and Civic Comment
intra-regional exchange of the products of the Southern agriculture and industry, and to exchange regional surpluses for the goods and services most advantage- ously obtained from outside the region, a financial organization capable of pro- viding at economical rates the funds for current transactions and of directing regional savings into regional oppor- tunities, and, finally a governmental or- ganization equipped to satisfy the edu- cational, recreational, health and esthetic needs of a civilized people.
Dr. Van Sickle pays tribute to the contributions of the National Re- sources Planning Board (no longer in existence) and to the TVA. He lays out tasks for the national plan- ning agency and for the State Plan- ning Boards. He discusses taxes and tax reforms in a realistic man- ner, and analyzes the various reme- dies for social security, always paus- ing to examine the human result. He sees certain Federal obstructions. He mentions the tariff, the prevail- ing freight rates, wages and labor standards, and public housing as fields of action which might lead to improved conditions in the South. Federal aid is looked in the face to ascertain in what respects it may prove a real aid and in what ways it may exercise undesirable influence on the South. He asks the pertinent question: Has the South any claim in equity for differential aid? Can the Nation as a whole afford the luxury of satisfying these claims? In view of the long years of Federal discrimination against the region Dr. Van Sickle concludes that the South has a reasonable claim for differential aid. But, whatever comes from an enlightened Federal aid, Dr. Van Sickle lays great stress on the needed improvement in
public administration at the state and local levels, and the great im- portance of self-help within the Region.
THE SMALL COMMUNITY — THE FOUNDA- TION OF DEMOCRATIC LIFE. WHAT IT Is AND How TO ACHIEVE IT. Arthur E. Morgan. Harper & Bros. Third Edi- tion. 1943.
Dr. Morgan has taken for his theme a concept that has long been cherished in America. Even within the larger framework of cities, plan- ners have recognized the need for self-contained neighborhoods. Dr. Morgan believes that:
The community need not disappear. The very changes which are destroying it have put into our hands means for re- creating it in a finer pattern. Seldom in modern times has the small community caught a glimpse of its possibilities. Today for the first time it can be abreast or ahead of the city in convenience of living. If we use the present time of social and economic transition as an opportunity, the dis- appearance of the old community need be no disaster. But there is little time to lose, for with its passing some fine cultural tra- ditions are being broken, and with human culture as with human breed, if we have no children we cannot transmit our inheri- tance to grandchildren.
After tracing the design and hu- man aspects of the community, Dr. Morgan ends on the democratic note so often cited in these columns:
The genius of democracy is to eliminate compulsion to uniformity, whether that compulsion be physical force or social pres- sure, and to develop common outlooks and aims by mutual inquiry, mutual interest, and mutual regard. That process seldom if ever takes place on a large scale. Rapid large-scale changes generally come by ig- noring individual variations and by en- forcing large-scale uniformities. True de- mocracy results from intimate relations and understanding, with the emergence of common purposes. The community is the natural home of democracy, and it can be the home of tolerance and freedom.
66
Recent Publications
Compiled by Katharine McNamara, Librarian of the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
AMERICAN MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION. Sec- ond Wartime Conference on Municipal Problems; proceedings of the twentieth annual conference of the American Muni- cipal Association, October 27, 28, 29, 1943 . . . Chicago. Chicago, The Asso- ciation, Nov. 1943. 120 pages. Litho- printed. Tables. (Report no. 154.) Price $2.00.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. BOARD OF DIRECTION. Postwar con- struction; planning now will safeguard national economy in critical transition period. New York, The Society, July 29, 1943. [11] pages.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANNING OFFI- CIALS. Local planning institute syllabus — note-book; rev. Chicago, The Society, Nov. 1943. Various paging. Mimeo- graphed. Maps, tables, charts. (Gen. 42.) Price $2.50.
BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH, PHILA- DELPHIA, PA. City planning com- missions in thirteen large cities of the United States: commission membership and officers, organization of staff, em- ployes [sic] and salaries, and appro- priations or expenditures for planning. A memorandum prepared by Charles A. Howland. Philadelphia, The Bureau, 1943. 13 pages. Mimeographed.
CANADIAN FEDERATION OF MAYORS AND MUNICIPALITIES. Comparative finan- cial position of Canadian municipalities for the years 1940-1943; a memorandum presented to the Parliamentary Com- mittee on Postwar Reconstruction and Re-establishment. Montreal, The Fed- eration, 1943. 3 pages + 8 tables. M i meograp hed.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. CONSTRUCTION AND Civic DEVELOPMENT DEPT. Building codes: an essential tool in urban development. Washington, The Chamber, [1943]. 15 pages.
EDWARDS, EVERETT E., comp. and ed. Jefferson and agriculture; a sourcebook. [Washington], U. S. Dept. of Agricul- ture, 1943. 92 pages. Lithoprinted. Diagrs. (Agricultural History Series no.
ESCRITT, L. B. Regional planning; an out- line of the scientific data relating to planning in Great Britain. London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1943. 263 pages. Maps (folded), plan (folded), diagrs., tables, charts. Price 12s. 6d.
GUTKIND, E. A. Creative demobilisation. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1943. 2 vols. IIIus. (folded), maps (part folded and part colored), plans, diagrs., tables, charts. (International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction.) Price 21s.
Contents: vol. 1, Principles of na- tional planning; vol. 2, Case studies in national planning.
HALTON, ELIZABETH E. Houses, towns and countryside; rev. ed. London, Town and Country Planning Associa- tion, 1943. 31 pages. IIIus. Price Is.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BUREAU FOR RE- SEARCH IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. Comparative status of 83 cities and towns in the Boston metropolitan census district . . . 1930 to date. [Cambridge, Mass.], The Bureau, Dec. 1943. 31 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, tables, charts. (No. 10.)
HAUSER, PHILIP M. Changing markets: changes of a geographic nature in war- time with some consideration of postwar population prospects of metropolitan areas, prepared for presentation before the National "War Conference" of the American Marketing Association at Cleveland, Ohio, November 11, 1943. [Washington, The author], 1943. 24 pages. Mimeographed. Tables.
LEVIN, DAVID R. Public control of high- way access and roadside development. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 103 pages. IIIus., maps, cross sections, tables, charts. Price 15 cents.
At head of title: Public Roads Ad- ministration.
MAYER, HAROLD MELVIN. The railway pattern of metropolitan Chicago. A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Division of the Physical Sciences in candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Geography, September 1943. Chicago, The Univer- sity of Chicago, 1943. 168 pages. Litho- printed. Maps (part folded), table.
NATIONAL RECREATION ASSOCIATION. Standards for neighborhood recreation areas and facilities. New York, The Association, Nov. 1943. 16 pages. Price 15 cents.
NEW ENGLAND TOWN PLANNING ASSO- CIATION. Community planning for younger citizens; a manual for teachers. [Boston], The Association, [1943]. 32 pages. IIIus., maps. Price 25 cents.
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Planning and Civic Comment
RANDERS-PEHRSON, N. H., and A. G. RENSTROM. Aeronautic Americana; a bibliography of books and pamphlets on aeronautics published in America before 1900. New York, The Sherman Fair- child Publication Fund, Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1943. 40 pages. IIIus.
At head of title: Library of Congress, Division of Aeronautics.
ROSENMAN, MRS. DOROTHY. The place of housing in the post-war economy; ad- ress . . . before the Northeastern Retail Lumbermen's Association, on January 25, 1944 ... New York, N. Y. New York, National Committee on Housing, Inc., 1944. 13 pages. Mimeographed.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. Towards a new Britain. Cheam, Surrey, Eng., Published for the Royal Institute of British Architects by the Architec- tural Press, 1943. 143 pages. IIIus., maps, diagrs. Price Is. 6d.
ST. Louis COUNTY, Mo. PLANNING COM- MISSION. It's your county; it's your county plan. St. Louis, The Commis- sion, Sept. 1943. 20 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, diagrs., charts.
Cover title, It's up to you.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. CITY PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION. City plan: Salt Lake City, Utah, 1943. Salt Lake City, The Commission, 1943. 86 pages. Maps (part folded), plans (folded and part colored), tables, charts. Price $1.00. Study directed by U. S. National Re- sources Planning Board.
STOKES, K. C. Regional shifts in popula- tion, production, and markets. 1939- 43. [Washington], U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Nov. 1943. 66 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, tables, charts. (Economic Series no. 30.)
U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRA- TION. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL DIVISION. Study of air traffic control. Report no. 1, Principles of present day air traffic
control. Washington, The Division, June 1,1943. 47 pages. Mimeographed. Maps (one folded), diagrs., table, charts.
U. S. CONGRESS. 78TH. 2o SESSION. SENATE, the role of the Federal Govern- ment in highway development; an analysis of needs and proposals for post- war action. Washington, Govt. Print- ing Office, 1944. 87 pages. Tables. (Senate Committee Print.)
U. S. PUBLIC ROADS ADMINISTRATION. Principles of highway construction as applied to airports, flight strips and other landing areas for aircraft. [Wash- ington, Govt. Printing Office], June 1943. 514 pages. IIIus., map, plans (one folded), diagrs., cross sections (part folded), tables, charts. Price $1.00.
WALKER, A. C., and R. S. COLLEY. Sketch plan for the development of metropoli- tan Corpus Christi; a report by A. C. Walker and R. S. CoIIey for the Corpus Christi Planning Commission. [Corpus Christi], Clyde Rainey Printing Co., May 1943. 26 pages. IIIus., maps, diagrs., charts.
Study directed by U. S. National Resources Planning Board.
WIENER, MINNIE, comp. War public works, a compilation of statutes, execu- tive orders, regulations and other docu- ments relating to the construction, financing, operation and maintenance of community facilities under the Lanham Act, as amended, August 24, 1943, comp. by Minnie Wiener under the direction of Alan Johnstone. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1943. 171 pages. Price 25 cents.
WILLIAMS, LESLIE, and PHILLIP ROBIN- SON. Wartime public transportation in Providence, Rhode Island; staggered hours progress report, prepared for the Providence War Transportation Com- mittee. Providence, War Transporta- tion Committee, Nov. 1943. 61 pages. Mimeographed. IIIus., maps, tables, charts.
WATCH SERVICE REPORT (Continued from page 58)
Chairman Robinson indicated that the bill might be rewritten in Committee and on May 22, 1944, he introduced H. R. 4853, a new bill with the same title, making the fol- lowing provisions: $1,500,000,000 to be made available for three postwar years. In the first postwar year the States shall be required to match allocations from the Federal Government on a 60-40 basis, and on the two successive years on a 50-50 basis.
H. R. 4628 (Wene) introduced April 18, 1944. A Bill to supplement the Federal Aid Road Act, approved July 11, 1916, as amended and supplemented, to provide the estab- lishment of an interregional system of highways and to authorize appropriations for the postwar construction of greatly needed highway facilities in the localities where such facilities are most urgently required and where the conversion from wartime to peacetime activities will require the cushioning effect of public works construction. Appropriation of funds would be made as follows: $400,000,000 a year for the construction on the in- terregional system and alternate and auxiliary routes; $270,000,000 for construction on the federal-aid primary and secondary systems. Equal matching of Federal funds by the States would be required.
68
Planning and Civic Comment
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page
Citizens Conference on Postwar Planning 1-26
Reporters' Reports on the various sessions
New Vice-Presidents and Board Members of APCA . . 13,14
Parks— Pictorial Section 27-42
State Park Notes 43
Summer Round Tables 45
Strictly Personal 46
APCA Presents its Viewpoint on Housing 47
How Vermont Solves its Billboard Problem 51
Recent Court Decisions 53
Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Bills 56
Memorandum on Postwar Housing 61
Urban Redevelopment in California 63
Recent Publications .65
JULY 1944
THIRD QUARTER— JULY-SEPTEMBER
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
Official Organ of: American Planning and Civic Association, National Conference on State Parks
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD
HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS HENRY V. HUBBARD
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HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW GEORGE ING ALLS
EDWARD M. BASSETT RAYMOND F. LEONARD
RICHARD E. BISHOP THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RUSSELL V. BLACK ROBERTS MANN
PAUL V. BROWN J. HORACE MCFARLAND
STRUTHERS BURT HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM KATHERINE MCNAMARA
GEORGE L. COLLINS HAROLD MERRILL
MARSHALL N. DANA MARVIN C. NICHOLS
S. R. DEBOER JOHN NOLEN, JR.
EARLE S. DRAPER F. A. PITKIN
NEWTON B. DRURY HUGH R. POMEROY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o ISABELLE F. STORY
L. C. GRAY L. DEMING TILTON
S. HERBERT HARE BEN H. THOMPSON
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY TOM WALLACE CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
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EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 10
July, 1944
No. 3
Citizens' Conference on Postwar Planning
Held in St. Louis, June 14-16, 1944
Attendance at the Citizens' Con- ference on Postwar Planning was good, considering the critical world events which were taking place at the same time. There were dele- gates from 25 States and about 25 cities, and eminent civic leaders made the trip to St. Louis to con- tribute their experience and ideas to the solution of the problems of the postwar period. The program was
carried out with only a few minor adjustments and the Reporters' Re- ports of the various sessions are pre- sented here to give the Association's members who were unable to at- tend. The Reports constitute a summary of the papers delivered. These will appear in full in the 1944 American Planning and Civic Annual, to be published later this year.
The theme of Wednesday's addresses was OUR POSTWAR CITIES. George H. Herrold, Planning Engineer, of St. Paul, Minn, acted as Reporter for the opening session. His Report follows:
The Citizens' Conference on Post- war Planning, held in St. Louis June 14, 15 and 16 was opened by Mayor Kaufmann who referred to the eighty-seven-million-dollar plan- ning program voted in 1923 and the benefits accrued from that program and also to the forty-three-million- dollar postwar program to be voted on this fall.
Horace M. Albright, President of the American Planning and Civic Association responded to the Mayor's welcome with a historical sketch of the Association, which was organ- ized in St. Louis by a merger of the American Park and Outdoor Art Association and the American League for Civic I mpro vement justf orty years ago. He recited interesting concepts of the work of the organization at
that time and its groping toward a broad concept of city planning with- out comprehending the full possi- bilities that lay before it. He felt a sense of gratification that the Asso- ciation was a pioneer in this great field, also a sense of humility in rela- tion to the great things yet to come. The three opening subjects of the Postwar Citizens' Conference were on present methods of transporta- tion— a new highway program, by H. S. Fairbank, Deputy Commis- sioner, Public Roads Administra- tion; Coordinated Railroad Termi- nals, by Frank G. Jonah, Chief Engineer Frisco Railroad; and A Modern City's Transportation Needs, by Charles Gordon, Manag- ing Director American Transit Asso- ciation.
Planning and Civic Comment
Mr. Fairbank explained proposed legislation now before Congress, which would provide definitely for Federal participation in a new Road and Street Construction program immediately after the war — a pro- gram raising the facilities of high- ways by 1960 as far above the level of 1940 as by that year it had been raised above the level of 1920. He thought the bill afforded the most authoritative intimation of ultimate congressional action. The first year Federal funds would pay sixty per- cent of the cost of projects under- taken, the second and third years the matching of funds between Fed- eral and state authorities would be fifty-fifty. The funds would be im- mediately available for approved projects. The survey and planning of projects could be undertaken at once and rights-of-way for pro- grammed projects could be ac- quired without delay and with the assurance of Federal participation in the cost. The bill was in advance of previous legislation as it included streets in urban areas and its two most significant features as related to the longer view were (a) the designation of, with the aid of the State, a national system of inter- state highways identical with the character and extent of the highway system as recommended in the re- port to Congress entitled "Inter- regional Highways" (b) the far- reaching provisions relating to sec- ondary roads to be selected by state, county and local road officials. He spoke of the need of state legislation to make possible the acquisition of rights-of-ways for future needs, now prohibited in many States, as well as for immediate construction . . also
the possibility of an over-all author- ity for dealing with the complex problem of coordinating the inter- national, express and street plans of a metropolitan area.
He said that in the new highway program there is recognition of new elements that should designate it as a refining, adjusting, stand- ardizing, adequate program that would distinguish it from earlier programs. He thought that the ideas expressed in the international highway report were receiving uni- versal acceptance and, quoting from Mr. MacDonald, "We pay for im- proved highways whether we have them or not and we pay less if we have them."
Colonel Jonah spoke of the studies made through the Interstate Commerce Commission, of the pro- posal for coordinating and consoli- dating all railroad lines and termi- nals and the possible economies that might result. He stated that in 1929 a plan was brought out for 21 sys- tems of railroads in the United States, but that the most of the econ- omies that would be affected would be in the terminals. In 1933 further study was made for the coordination of terminals in all large centers of railway operation, published in 1935, which indicated that the resulting economies would mean the abandon- ment of many constricted facilities and a large reduction of operating forces.
Railroad facilities have been built up on a competitive basis, each estab- lishing terminals now located in the heart of business districts on very valuable sites. He pointed to the many consolidations of terminals for passengers, as witnessed by numer-
Planning and Civic Comment
ous union stations, also many con- solidated ticket offices. But the making of all the trackage in a rail- way center a division for operating purposes had not yet met with favor. He said that the terminal sites which had been selected were largely governed by terrains and that cities had been built around these termi- nal yards. He thought that many objectionable features, such as noise and smoke, had been eliminated by the Diesel switch locomotive.
With the construction of the finest system of highways possessed by any nation on earth, it was natural that they be taken advantage of by bus companies and freighters; railroads began abandoning branch lines which were paralleled by excellent paved highways. This led to cooperation between bus lines and railways, the latter owning the equipment. This resulted in real economies. Col. Jonah expanded his paper to the co- ordination of railroads and air traffic, railroads and ocean traffic, railroads and river and lake traffic and the coordination of all express business. He was of the opinion that the terminal sites and freight houses should be moved from the central district to outer group yards, elimi- nating the crossing of streets and switchings in business districts by making full use of motor lines.
Mr. Charles Gordon referred at once to the disintegration of cities. If the subject assigned Mr. Gordon had been city planning instead of A Modern City's Transportation Needs, he could have read the same paper. He recited the stages of growth of American cities as linked to the development oftransportation facilities. There was an era in which
people walked or rode horseback or used animal drawn vehicles and this limited the city area to from two to two-and-one-half miles from its center. Then came the electric street car, extending the practical radius of population distribution to five miles. The great influx of popu- lation and the rapid growth of cities were phenomenal for a long period. Sites of old homes were converted into business houses and people moved farther out. Land values in- creased rapidly.
Then came the automobile with its profound effect on the pattern of urban living. The potential area of cities increased from 75 square miles to 750 square miles and there was a steady drift from older residential areas to a wide belt of low cost lands surrounding. Those who ran away hoped that others would stay and support the city. The increased use of the automobile filled the capacity of the whole street system of the old community. Unfortunately, decen- tralization does not assure desirable environment even in the outskirts. Such developments lack many things necessary to good living and they merely spread the disease of conges- tion and blight and multiply the problems. The way we deal with our transportation in the next few years will determine the fate of cities. There is no possibility of everyone using an automobile to go to his work.
Cities are for personal contact, for economical, cultural and social intercourse. If streets are so con- gested that people cannot meet, then we lose the purpose of the city. Too much attention is given by planners to the routes of the auto-
Planning and Civic Comment
mobile and not enough to mass trans- portation. New urban highway pro- grams as now being planned will help to destroy cities. It is apparent that every home owner and every investor in a business or business property stands in eminent danger from the unstability and economical waste resulting from unpredictable shifts in property values. De- centralization involves increasedcost for city services and reduces the efficiency of the community.
There are, of course, many factors other than traffic congestion. Build- ings and older neighborhoods be- come obsolete and the redevelop- ment of such inlying property is made difficult because the owners continue to value this property at high levels. But the fact remains that the way in which we deal with local mass transportation in the postwar years will have a much more fundamental effect upon the pattern of our cities than has been recognized.
Modern planners visualize self- contained neighborhood communi- ties, each having its local schools, churches and shopping sections, separated by large open areas. There is great hope in the growth of this concept of modern city develop- ment.
If disintegration of present areas is to be checked and the spread of blight is to be prevented, this local transportation problem must be
more thoroughly and widely under- stood than at present. It is futile to build beautiful cities if the arteries of local travel are so choked that the major purpose of the city is defeated. Better housing, more adequate parks and playgrounds and the many social and esthetic features of a modern city can achieve their pur- pose only if there is available an adequate circulatory system to pro- mote orderly development of com- mercial and residential areas in their most advantageous relation- ship. Plans for major urban high- way projects should not be settled without taking into full consideration the opportunity of designing these structures so as to make them as useful as possible to those who ride in public vehicles.
Unless this is done, new urban highways will fail in their purpose and they will expedite the process of urban disintegration. It would be highly advantageous to modern cities to foster the improvement of public transit service in every possi- ble way, even to subsidize it if neces- sary to achieve the highest possible standard of convenience and com- fort for public transit riders. There is grave danger that in planning for tomorrow's cities, we provide the highways to give city dwellers ac- cess to the countryside before we provide the internal transportation system essential to their very sur- vival.
The keynote address of the Conference was delivered at a luncheon, Monday, June 14, by Hon. J. Woodall Rodgers, Mayor of Dallas, Texas. Hon. Chester C. Davis, President of the Federal Reserve Bank, St. Louis, presided, and S. Herbert Hare, Kansas City, Mo. acted as Reporter. His report follows:
Improved methods of building better cities is city planning. It is
not new. Queen Semiramis of Babylon planned the first complete
Planning and Civic Comment
city centuries ago. Paris, France and L'Enfant's plan for Washington D. C. are more recent examples.
In the last quarter century every modern city in America has felt the outstanding need of good planning, and has accepted the work of the city plan engineer as that of a great and noble profession.
City planning is simply the exer- cise of municipal imagination — expert vision of inevitable city growth and planning for that growth — municipal pre-vision, municipal preparedness and municipal pre- vention. The purpose of planning is to correct mistakes of the past and prevent future ones; to allot and arrange the use of land, the people thereon and the facilities which serve them.
We plan because we want a good city. A good city is — First: A city in which technical and scientific advances are used to the fullest extent; Second: A city well arranged on its site as to residential, com- mercial and industrial areas and transportation; Third: A city in which business and industry can be conducted expeditiously; Fourth: A city of good residential neighbor- hoods— spacious, attractive, safe and stable — with ample parks and large school grounds; Fifth: An efficient city where municipal services can be provided at a minimum tax cost. Our cities need new plans because in the first place they were not planned as cities at the start, but as many real estate subdivisions tacked onto each other like patches on the "britches" of a country boy. It is time for some new "store bought" clothes to make the subject pre- sentable in the polite society of
modern American cities. Cities geared to an Eighteenth or Nine- teenth Century chassis cannot carry the Twentieth Century load.
In the second place our cities need new plans because we have run away from our problem. The automobile has promoted "sleeping cities" around the mother city, impairing the tax base of the parent city, promoting blight and creating civic disunity.
Lastly, minority pressure groups have made political footballs of our cities' policies and plans to the detriment of the community as a whole.
How can we build a good city? The first step is a comprehensive, realistic, up-to-date Master City Plan, embracing the entire metro- politan urban area, and based on a careful analysis of needs. The sec- ond step is to insure that all im- provements will follow this chart, and the third step is to bring public thought, participation and support along in its making, to guarantee its execution.
Three basic considerations as a foundation of the plan are the estimated population for the met- ropolitan community for a quarter century ahead, the pattern of this population on the land, and the facilities to serve the people.
The timely observance of certain natural and fundamental laws will help us develop modern cities for modern needs. The proper allot- ment of real property to its various functional purposes and the pro- tection of values and use by ade- quate zoning are imperative.
The principal physical facilities to serve our future city are:
Planning and Civic Comment
1. A Major Street System. Such a system should serve commercial, industrial and residential areas; provide parking facilities and other means of relieving downtown con- gestion; and include national or interregional and state highways.
2. Transportation by rail, water and air. Elimination of unnecessary railroads and dangerous grade cross- ings, and provision for freight de- pots in wholesale and industrial districts are some of these problems. Cooperation of the railroads is es- sential in planning, and Dallas has several examples of such coopera- tion.
Every city has its own water problems. If we can harness the deadly lightning to our needs, we should exercise dominion over the gentle rain.
Aviation is the fascinating miracle of the age — the Princess of the God of Fortune. Her favor will deter- mine the destiny of future trade centers of the world and the trend of civilization. The fruits of avia- tion will go to those who woo it.
The Dallas Master Plan of Avia- tion calls for twenty-one ports, four to be owned by the city. The air- ports provide for military, passen- ger, freight, express, mail and pri- vate flying, and include super ports, major ports, minor ports and heli- copter stations under municipal or private ownership as may seem best. The responsibility for the Master Aviation Plan falls on the cities, who have subsidized aviation for a quarter of a century.
Certain lend lease developments should give us free access to the ports of the world. The entire world is involved in aviation through the
war. Victory alone awaits its change to commerce. No city can meet modern demands without a sound Master Plan of Aviation.
3. Local Transit (Street Cars and Busses). Transit facilities are im- perative to our economic life. Few people can afford to live far from transit service, and the transit plan should be coordinated with popula- tion and land-use patterns.
4. Parks and Public Schools. In addition to providing educational and recreational needs, parks and public schools should be local points of much of our community life. Our Dallas Master Plan will provide for ample school grounds in addition to neighborhood parks and recreational areas, parkways, and larger parks on the outskirts.
5. Public Buildings. Public build- ings should adequately meet the needs of the community and reflect the character, tone and quality of the people they serve. Many cities have grouped such buildings to- gether around attractive landscap- ing as "Civic Centers," which in some cases have reclaimed blighted or slum areas.
The Plan is only a blueprint to chart our way, its mere preparation solves nothing, and only the exe- cuted part will be of value. Public interest, understanding and support are necessary to carry it out, and administrative policies and prac- tices, legal procedure to give it official status and meaning, city ordinances such as zoning, and the control of new land subdivision must be harmonized with the Master Plan. In addition, a capital ex- penditure program must be set up.
The sum total of small changes to
Planning and Civic Comment
which we pay little attention, over a decade or more, results in startling transformations in our cities. In the long view, our cities are not static; they are quite flexible, and we can make them what we wish, regardless of what they may be now, by har- monizing changes with the Master Plan.
The most pressing and immediate postwar problems are:
First, employment of ten million soldiers and fifty million war work- ers. Failure will endanger free enter- prise, our capitalistic system, our democratic form of local self gov- ernment, and our American in- stitutions.
Second, reconstruction of obsolete and blighted areas. This can be accomplished through legislation and various types of city aid or subsidy to encourage private invest- ment. Cities must be rebuilt from the heart out or face economic death.
Third, the unification of all com- ponent parts of the metropolitan urban area, either by merger with the mother city, or some form of metropolitan government to equal- ize the civic and political respon- sibility of all citizens. Many well-to- do citizens and civic leaders live in suburban communities and isolate themselves from political and civic responsibility of the mother city, which gives them their business opportunities and livelihood, and their sources of cultural and rec- reational enjoyment. The subsidy of the mother city to crime, charity, relief, slums and other forms of economic relief and community enterprise should be borne pro- portionately by all who enjoy the
advantage of the city. Disease, despair, crime and misfortune, pov- erty and pestilence know no bound- ary lines in a metropolitan com- munity. Duplication of govern- mental services and costs should be eliminated.
We must plan now. Time grows short. Good planning takes time. Surveys, plans and specifications must be made, financial programs worked out, and the public informed and educated, if we are to have work ready for soldiers and war workers when peace comes. The postwar period will present a colos- sal task. The only tax structure that will support it is that of the Federal Government, whether we like it or not. It collects seventy-five cents of every tax dollar. Highways of land and air are national in char- acter. The new policy of the Fed- eral Roads Administration to open up, widen and pave national high- ways through cities offers one of the greatest opportunities for city building in the postwar period.
When Pearl Harbor broke, city building stopped. At war's end, our cities must be brought up to date. Critical materials for construction, paving and maintenance, went into the crucibles of war. We must catch up. Bottlenecks, traffic haz- ards, parking problems, ever-in- creasing, must be solved. Public building, private construction, and homes, long deferred improvements, will be due. Obsolete buildings must be modernized to meet modern needs. Added growth during the war period must be provided for. Great 'days and great problems lie ahead, but likewise, great oppor- tunities and responsibility. We face
Planning and Civic Comment
new conditions and new challenges. It is our duty to vision and to plan far ahead to meet them. We must have worthwhile work waiting for our returning soldiers and war workers. It must be built on sound economy. We must push forward!
To do this, we must have plans. Already we should be in the de- signing stage. We are the trustees of this great responsibility. Let not history record that our eyes were too dim to see the vision, or our hands too feeble to carry it out.
At the Wednesday afternoon session the theme was HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. Luther Ely Smith, Chairman, Jefferson National Expansion Me- morial Association, St. Louis, Missouri, presided, and Leslie Williams, City Planning Engineer of the American Transit Association acted as Reporter.
Thomas S. Holden, Jr., in his paper "Housing — What Private Enter- prise Can Do" — set forth the follow- ing thoughts:
A few people appreciate the na- ture of the real estate revolution in the United States since World War I or the extdnt that revolution affected the depth and duration of the depression. The nation-wide urban real estate boom of the late '20' s was based upon rapid popula- tion growth.
Following the present war there is little doubt that commodity prices and rents will advance after ceilings have been lifted. It is generally recognized that the greatest infla- tion threat comes in the postwar period. If the threat of postwar price inflation is successfully met this time, it will be the first time in our history. I believe that the post- war residential building market will be much more sensitive to price changes than was the case in the '20's. Rising rent levels will ulti- mately affect land values. Early postwar residential building will take place in outlying and suburban areas rather than in the central ur- ban districts. My estimate is that 820,000 new non-farm dwelling units a year for the first ten years will be
built. This presupposes a very high level of prosperity and a rate of re- placement far beyond any we have had in the past. It can reasonably be expected that about two-thirds of the postwar housing units will con- sist of single family houses.
In view of widespread purchasing power available for down payments, of ample mortgage money, and of probable continuation of the trend of population to outlying districts and suburbs, and also in view of in- vestment uncertainties in the early transition period, residential build- ing revival will most likely start with single family houses costing, with land, $6,000 and up for owners' oc- cupancy.
Demand for rental housing is apt to follow demand for houses built to owner's order and houses built by operative builders for sale. Two- family and three-family houses are apt to be relatively few. Suburban apartments having two-story walk- up type, running four or more suites to the building, are apt to be numerous. Large elevator apart- ments in central locations are likely to be in demand when, and if, our cities will be able to make major im- provements.
An important overall factor in
Planning and Civic Comment
determining the postwar volume of investment housing will be the tax situation involving the tax policies and practices of government at all levels.
Private enterprise can produce all the housing facilities for which there is an economic demand, but private enterprise cannot function satis- factorily under a tax system which penalizes thrift and risk-taking or under a system of bureaucratic regu- lation. Neither can it function satis- factorily under a system of govern- ment centralization which tends to eliminate the proper powers and functions of state and local govern- ments or under a system of govern- ment competition which perpetuates itself by unrealistic bookkeeping and unconventional cost account- ing. Private enterprise puts its faith in an evolutionary progress producing a fairly continuous im- provement in living standards.
Public housing requiring subsidy is, per se, outside the range of eco- nomic demand. Postwar public housing will probably have to be sold to Congress and to the public strictly on its merits as a program for social betterment and not as a make- work or slum clearance program.
It is my strong conviction that one of the best ways to eliminate actual competition and to fit public housing into the social and economic pattern of the community is to ap- ply subsidies in the form of rent al- lowances made directly to aided families to supplement the rents that they themselves can pay out of their own incomes.
I do not see any likelihood for a very long time to come of a repeti- tion of the real estate revolution of
the 1920's. Continuous construc- tion demand arises from an ex- panded economy. It seems entirely possible that the coming postwar revival will again set the stage for a great economic expansion.
John Ihlder, in his talk "Housing — A Public Responsibility" — pointed to Mr. Holden's omission of the term "slum" in his paper and re- ferred to Mr. Holden's emphasis upon houses for those who can af- ford to pay over $6,000.
Mr. Ihlder stressed that very lit- tle subsidy is required today in Washington for tenants in public housing projects, but that it is most difficult to graduate the tenants of public housing to private housing because of the great gap in the rents that these tenants can afford and the commercial rents being asked in private housing.
It was further stated that there is general agreement that all slums must go, but that the difficulty lies in the methods and the degree of governmental control which must be exercised.
Public housing does not compete with private housing because public housing provides proper dwellings for those for whom private housing cannot build or rent.
There are two approaches to the problem of rebuilding our cities and assuring an adequate supply of prop- er dwellings for all their people.
The first is that the job must be done by recognizing its magnitude and its vital importance in our social and economic life and by realizing that old methods have proved in- adequate.
The second approach is that the job should be done. But more im-
Planning and Civic Comment
portant than the job is the method of build for slum dwellers and would
doing it. So, the job can be done only to the extent that the method is effective. We may seek to vitalize it by various forms of governmental assistance, but in form at least, the old method must continue to be the only method.
In housing we have reached a point in our history where again we must make a decision. Shall we con- tinue to rely exclusively upon an old method that experience has proven to be inadequate to the whole job, or shall we supplement the old method to the extent necessary to achieve our purpose of cities freed of all their slums?
Those who advocate supplement- ing the old method recognize the value of the old. They believe that there is no substitute for private enterprise and individual initiative in promoting progress. But they also believe that private enterprise and individual initiative have their limi- tations at the level where, in order to preserve the profit essential to its existence, private enterprise pro- duces slums.
The other method is public hous- ing. This involves increased govern- mental responsibility and that gov- ernmental responsibility takes two forms: namely, effective overall planning or replanning of the whole urban area and provision of housing for the low income portion of the population which cannot afford profit-producing rents for proper dwellings.
Private housing should be supple- mented by public housing. It must be understood, however, that private builders admit that if they were given the slum land they could not
require rent subsidies. These rent subsidies would exceed those now being provided for public housing.
Alfred Bettman, in his paper "Urban Redevelopment Legisla- tion," stated that by urban redevel- opment legislation is meant that type of statute which grants powers and specifies organization and pro- cedure for the exercise of and for the financing of the replanning and the rebuilding of blighted, including slum, areas.
The blight is not caused merely by the decay of the buildings. There is obsolescence in the lot layout and there is the deeper but no less in- escapable city plan obsolescence.
If the redevelopment is to be in- telligent, the planning of the future layout and uses of such an area must correspond to the careful process of study and analysis. The replanning of any blighted area must be a prod- uct of the master plan of the whole city. This master planning is the appropriate province of the city planning agency and one of the de- fects of most redevelopment statutes is the absence of adequate provision for comprehensive planning. Some statutes seem to assume that be- cause an area is now used for low rent habitation, the redevelopment should be for low rent habitation, whereas, by reason of decentraliza- tion of industry or other changes, perhaps that is the most uneconomic use to be made of that area.
The enactment of effective urban redevelopment legislation is today being confused and hampered by the issues of private vs. public housing. Rightly understood this issue is ir- relevant to the urban redevelop-
10
Planning and Civic Comment
ment statute. That statute pro- vides for the comprehensive plan- ning of the whole territory of the city and the city planner is not in- volved in the question of who will do the construction.
One of the most important ques- tions is how to finance this land as- sembly. The problem is who is to furnish the funds for the acquisition and who is to carry this difference between the acquisition cost and sale or lease price until the proceeds of revenues from the areas can amortise the whole or part of the de- ficiency. The simplest method is that public funds be advanced for the land acquisition and that the proceeds of the sale of the area, or if leased, the revenues under the lease be paid over to the body which ad- vanced the original funds.
Mr. Bettman emphasized that the word "housing" had not been men- tioned in his paper even though "housing" is the dominant use of land in cities. He pointed out that everyone will be benefitted by the redevelopment process through over- all planning of which housing is only a part. The main objective of re- development is to learn through comprehensive planning the best use of all areas within a community and then redevelop these areas in ac- cordance with the determined plan by means of redevelopment statutes.
The city planner must plan for all the needs and areas and should not take a stand on whether the areas should be developed by pri- vate or public housing enterprises.
Howard Menhinick speaking in place of Hugh Potter on postwar urban development explained the present urban redevelopment laws
and proposals for rebuilding blighted areas. Mr. Menhinick made clear that city areas can be developed only on a neighborhood unit or large scale basis with public and private enterprise cooperating.
The difficulties to redevelopment are:
(1) The extent of planning con- trol by local planning agencies
(2) Agreement on fiscal controls
(3) The amount of subsidies and methods of taxation
(4) The wisdom of pouring new money into old cities
(5) A classification of whether the problem is a question of the redevelopment of cities or the bailing out of high valued property.
The discussion was led by Mr. Menhinick and the first question from the floor was "Are we to have housing for ne'er-do- wells and drunk- ards?"
Mr. Holden said that we must look to the individual to solve his own housing problems and we must aid in preventing the depressing times of the past and the feeling of dependency which comes upon the individual in depression years. In other words, we must work for an expanded economy as the ultimate solution to the housing problem.
Mr. Ihlder said that we do pro- pose to provide housing for every- one, whether the parents of children are drunkards or ne'er-do- wells and that we should visualize a city in which there is opportunity to every- one for proper living.
A comment from the floor brought out that the problem of housing and
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Planning and Civic Comment
city planning has two aspects: Those who can pay an economic rent or can be accommodated by private enterprise. There is a prob- lem of land assembly and this can be achieved in the high valued central areas by means of government as- sistance on a neighborhood basis. However, those who cannot afford the economic rent can and should be handled by subsidy from the govern- ment.
Mr. Holden again emphasized that we must have a subsidy in the
form of a rental allowance for the low income groups.
Mr. Ihlder, in his final remarks, made clear that private housers make claims on how cheap they can build houses, but say very little about the rents asked to live in these houses. The object of the private housers seems to be, according to Mr. Ihlder, to drive public housers out of the housing field. According- ly, public and private housing go to- gether and should be judged not on price, but rather on performance.
DINNER SESSION, sponsored by the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. Arthur Drefs, Chairman of the Board, St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and Chairman, Committee on Postwar Planning for St. Louis, presided and introduced Frederick C. Crawford, President, Thompson Products, Cleveland, Ohio, and Past President National Association of Manufacturers, and J. Wesley McAfee of St. Louis.
Mr. Crawford's subject was Post- war Employment: By Business. He said that if the Federal Government continues to impose birth control on new business and to hamstring capi- talism by heavy taxation and rigid security laws, industry will not be able to produce the one-fourth more jobs which the postwar world will demand.
Five things were outlined by Mr. Crawford as prerequisite for postwar prosperity. They were: Lower taxa- tion, modification of security laws, a "realistic" labor policy in which em- ployer and employee would bargain collectively without government in- terference, proper use of social secur- ity in which benefits would be limited to a minimum and the end to bureaucracy. In his appeal for bet-
ter business leadership, Mr. Craw- ford compared the present adminis- tration's methods of hampering business to those prevailing in Ger- many when he visited there in 1936.
Mr. Drefs scored the govern- ment's slowness in dealing with war contract termination and reconver- sion.
J. Wesley McAfee, president of the Union Electric Company of Missouri and Vice-Chairman of the St. Louis Citizens' Committee, out- lined the history of the $43,000,000 bond issue of the city of St. Louis for postwar developments. He said that the bond issue is not a subsidy, but is based on the real needs of the com- munity and is timed so as to employ both labor and materials when such employment will be most necessary.
12
Two new V ice-Presidents were elected at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Planning and Civic Association at St. Louis, June 15, 1944.
Above. First V ice-President Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, 3rd Washington, D. C
Left. Second V ice-President Tom Wallace Louisville, Kentucky
Photo by Harris & Ewing Washington, D. C
Two new Board Members were elected at the Members'1 Meeting of the Association held in St. Louis, June 15, 1944.
Above. J. Woodall Rodgers Dallas, Texas
Right. Harland Bartholomew St. Louis, Missouri
Planning and Civic Comment
AFTER-BREAKFAST ROUND TABLE ON PLANNING EDUCATION. Flavel Shurtleff, Counsel APCA and Associate Professor of Planning Legislation and Ad- ministration, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presided. The Assisting Com- mittee consisted of Prof. H. O. Whittemore, University of Michigan, Prof. Karl Lohmann, University of Illinois and Prof. Philip H. Elwood, Iowa State College. A. J. Webster, Director of State Planning, Rhode Island State Planning Board, acted as Reporter.
The Chairman opened the session with the suggestion that planning courses offered at various univer- sities be reviewed and discussed from three points of view: namely, (1) planning education for the lay- man; (2) for professional persons other than planners; and (3) for professional planners.
The discussion on education for the layman developed that orienta- tion courses in planning could logi- cally be made electives of the univer- sity curriculum leading to the A.B. degree, and considerable sentiment was also evinced that such orienta- tion courses could logically start as early in the educational program as junior high school, possibly in con- nection with courses in civics or citizenship. The value of such courses was generally conceded to be in the creation of a large body of laymen well oriented in the tech- niques of planning and cognizant of the benefits to be derived from well planned communities, who would be available to serve intelligently as members of planning boards and in other public offices. It was also sug- gested that a limited number of stu- dents might, through this orienta- tion procedure, become sufficiently interested to seek specialized train- ing in the field and adopt planning as a profession.
The discussion of the extent and character of planning subjects which should be made available in college courses leading to degrees and allied
professions such as architecture, civil engineering and landscape archi- tecture, developed around the idea that the professional planner must rely to a great extent upon other pro- fessions for specific project develop- ment and hence the need for a greater degree of basic scholastic training in the principles and meth- ods of comprehensive planning for members of these allied professions. There was general agreement that planning and the allied professional courses should be inter-related and cooperative.
Discussion of recent experience in universities offering courses leading to degrees in planning emphasized the difficulty in obtaining the inter- est of students in a field where mone- tary considerations were secondary to a personal desire to achieve social betterment through planned physi- cal development.
There was general agreement that adequate programs for education of the layman, especially those carried on at the elementary or high school level, might eventually produce a sizable group of students entering college with a basic concept of the principles of planning who would de- sire to enter the professional field. There would also be a proportion of those students in the allied pro- fessions at the college level who could be expected to change their emphasis and major in planning as a result of the program of inter- related professional courses.
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Planning and Civic Comment
A proposal that courses leading to a degree in planning be made a 6- year course met with disfavor as an immediate prospect on the ground that many of our young men now in the armed services will insist on shorter rather than longer college terms. The success of the short, concentrated courses given by the Army in teaching various technical subjects was cited as an example of what the returning service man will demand. It was suggested that the seminar type of refresher course would suit the requirements of many
returning service men and others whose education had suffered inter- ference during the war. It was also pointed out that a number of special short courses should probably be added to the standard college curric- ula to satisfy the requirements of service men after the war.
It was generally agreed that the element of leadership so essential in the field of professional planning, could not be taught but should be nurtured and developed to its fullest possible extent during the college training period.
On Thursday, June 15th, POSTWAR URBAN PROBLEMS AND PROGRAMS were discussed. At the morning session, J. Lionberger Davis, St. Louis, Missouri, presided. Maj. E. A. Wood, Dallas, Texas, acted as Reporter. His Report follows:
"Our Metropolitan Cities in the Postwar Period/' was the subject of the first paper by Malcolm Dill, Executive Secretary, Citizens Plan- ning Association for the Develop- ment of the Cincinnati, O. Area. He made the following points :
There are eight problems con- fronting the Metropolitan cities to- day. These are not new and have ex- isted so long that they have become chronic.
The first is migration from the cen- tral city to the suburbs. This situa- tion began when the price of the auto made it possible for many people to use them for daily transportation purposes. The second is the down- ward spiral of property values and the upward rise of taxes within the central city.
The third is the growth of blighted areas around the central business area. The present apparent remedy is to tear down these worn out, ob- solete structures, replat the areas to give more privacy and open space
and rebuild with modern residential buildings. Such a program offers large opportunities for reemploy- ment of many people.
4. The next is whether needed residential construction shall be car- ried out only in areas that have been laid out according to a master plan.
5. Transportation snarls, conges- tion, accidents and loss of time con- tinues to focus attention on the great need for off-street parking in down- town areas.
6. The lack of recreation facilities, especially in newer subdivisions which are being put on without the benefit of comprehensive planning, injects the problem of how these necessary facilities may be provided after the area has been built up.
7. One of the most serious prob- ems facing Metropolitan areas is the lack of health and education fa- cilities in the areas outside of the central or parent city. This throws an unfair and unequal burden on the parent city.
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Planning and Civic Comment
8. The last problem is the high de- gree of pollution that exists in most rivers and lakes today. Unfortu- nately most of our metropolitan cities are located on or near these same rivers and lakes and their con- dition requires costly and highly technical treatment before they can be utilized by the public for most purposes.
A metropolitan area is like some terrestrial body that has exploded; there are just too many pieces and no cooperation between the pieces. The Citizens Planning Association is trying to coordinate the activities of the various communities that make up the metropolitan area. The co- ordinating body should have suffi- cient prestige to secure the interest of all the people instead of the selfish groups alone. Here is an opportunity for representation without taxation. It isn't necessary for the association to have a lot of authority. It should have a good staff and should hold meetings that have sufficient interest to get good attendance.
After the war everyone will relax and it will be difficult to hold people's interest. However, re- sponsibility cannot be delegated to the other fellow and these problems affect everyone. Solomon said, "When there is no vision the people perish." Surely no one wants the American people to perish. Unless more interest in metropolitan civic associations can be generated it will be necessary for the metropolitan areas to do like Elmer the Strong Man did "Hoist itself out of its diffi- culties by the seat of its pants."
Dr. Walter W. Heller, Assistant to the Director of Tax Research, U. S. Treasury Department, Wash-
ington, D. C., made the following points on the subject of: "Impact of Taxation on Municipal Postwar Planning." He said:
It is necessary to coordinate all forms of taxation for a healthy municipal, state, and national econ- omy depends upon a healthy con- dition in taxation at all levels.
Dr. Heller exhibited a number of colored charts to illustrate the vari- ous points of conflict in taxes on the municipal, state, and national levels.
The first chart named specific taxes and showed that the Federal Government dominated the income and death tax field while the State dominated the liquor, auto and gas tax field.
The second chart showed that the Federal Government dominated the field in corporate income, tobacco, individual income, death and gift, alcoholic beverage and payroll taxes. The 50 percent or half way point be- tween National, state and municipal taxation is reached with the stock transfer tax.
The results of duplicate taxation are extra expense, inconvenience and the nuisance feature.
The depression of 1930 high- lighted the unbalanced condition of taxation. The third chart showed the amount of taxes collected over a series of years. The peak collection occurred in 1930 and the lowest amount in 1933. Since 1933 state and Federal taxes have increased while municipal taxes have re- mained about the same.
At this point the granting of aid by the Federal Government was dis- cussed and it was pointed out that aids were not properly allocated. One of the objections to aid was that
17
Planning and Civic Comment
the municipality had to match funds. Rich States got more funds than the poorer States.
It was also pointed out that the fiscal policies of municipalities were not always good and that they had a tendency to build up peaks and deepen valleys. In booms they spend money and in depressions they curtailed expenses. Recently some cities have lowered taxes which has helped inflation.
The next chart, which looked like a Rube Goldberg cartoon, illustrated the lack of coordination in taxation and the allocation of tax monies.
Remedies suggested to better the situation were, active participation by all agencies in a program of sim- plification and the placing of a part of the ad valorem property tax on the tenant. A study of the tax situation is available in Senate Document No. 69.
The next chart was quite in- teresting and showed the per capita income of the population by States arranged numerically from Missis- sippi ($200 income per capita) to New York ($800+ per capita).
At this point it was suggested that the proposed 22d amendment to the Constitution which would limit Federal income tax to 25 per- cent should be defeated.
The next chart showed the local and state property tax decrease from 85 percent to 56 percent.
The last chart showed the per- centage distribution of Federal and local tax collections from 1915 to 1941.
Oliver L. Parks, President, Parks Air College, East St. Louis, spoke on "Effect of Air Travel on Metro- politan Regions/' as follows:
Air travel will improve the metro- politan region and we can expect continued expansion of this area be- cause of a new type of plane. It is called the Ercoupe and it is made by the Engineering Research Corpora- tion of Maryland. It is safe and it is fool proof. Anyone can learn to operate it in five hours. The Parks Air College tested representatives from all classes of Americans and proved that men can learn to fly in 4*/2 hours and women in 4 hours and 54 minutes.
We need a new type of trans- portation to supplement present types. The airplane offers this type. It will not be successful however, without airparks and flight strips where small planes can land in any section of the city.
One thing has worked against the airport; the average citizen does not like the present type. Make them like parks, surrounding them with trees, shrubs, flowers and grass. Parks Air College has 1500 trees and shrubs around its campus. City planning groups should help this movement to establish airparks so that the business man and the lady of the house can fly to their various engagements. The plane is here but the airparks and landing strips are not.
It is predicted that the average air trip in the postwar era will be less than 25 miles.
Mr. Parks called attention to river front area in St. Louis that has been cleared of structures and is now growing up in weeds. Pending its use as an historical monument Mr. Parks suggested that it be used im- mediately as an experimental air- park with underground hangars.
18
Planning and Civic Comment
This proposal, he said, will fill empty office buildings, encourage new apart- ments.
There is a bill in Congress now to provide 6000 landing strips through- out the United States as a postwar activity. To complete these strips in
3 years would require the services of a million men.
The glide angle for the Ercoupe is 1 in 7 and the landing strip should be 2000 feet long. The Ercoupe is 10 years ahead of the Helicopter.
Planning and Parks in the Federal City, by Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, 3rd, Chairman National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and Indispensable Parks, by Robert M. Evans were discussed at the Thursday luncheon. Dr. George T. Moore, Director, Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, presided.
Gen. Grant said that the present war has brought to Washington many serious new problems. An in- crease of 42 percent in the popula- tion in two years has resulted in a crowding and over-loading of facili- ties never experienced before. In anticipation of the serious slum problem existing today and the need for general slum clearance and re- development of blighted areas as soon as building construction can be resumed on a large scale, the Na- tional Capital Park and Planning Commission is recommending ap- propriate urban redevelopment leg- islation which will open the door to private enterprise to do as much of the reconstruction work as possible and leave only that which cannot be done by private enterprise, without undue subsidy and expense, to be done by the National Capital Hous- ing Authority.
The total park area in the District of Columbia was reported as 6,667.2 acres. Twenty recreation centers and 43 smaller units have been acquired.
Gen. Grant pointed out that both the government agencies and the
citizens of the National Capital are alert to the serious problems that will have to be faced upon the vic- torious conclusion of the war. He explained that a peculiarity of the National Capital is the fact that the municipal government has no legis- lative or appropriating power in it- self and the Congress of the United States is practically the city council; therefore legislation and appropria- tion of funds must wait upon action by Congress. In such matters, he said, Congress reflects nationwide sentiment, and current trends are tbwards making the Capital not only an outstanding exemplar for Ameri- can cities but worthy among world capitals of becoming a pivotal point in the postwar world.
Mr. Evans urged that we empha- size our recreational programs, cor- rect our laws, take the people's parks out of politics, establish permanence and continuity through Boards or Park Commissioners, use profes- sional planners as a guide, plan larger and better areas, and bring the parks to the people who need them most.
19
Planning and Civic Comment
The Thursday afternoon session was presided over graciously by Mrs. George Gellhorn, Co-Chairman of the Committee which sponsored the Conference in St. Louis, Noble P. Hollister, Executive Director, Indianapolis City Planning Com- mission, served as Reporter. His report follows:
In a paper entitled, "The Plan, The Press and the Citizen," Stephen C. Noland, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Editor, the Indianapolis News, gave a refreshing and entertaining view of the value of the press in supporting plans and stimulating interest of citizens. His talk was spiced with amusing anecdotes of typical Hoosier color. Mr. Noland laid emphasis on the importance of perception of the language of the people in any region or locality, pointing out that without such understanding publicity campaigns would not be fully effective. He suggested that press support of a planning program should be on a "crusade" level and he proceeded to sketch a hypothetical plot of a publicity campaign, illustrating his point with an absorbing narrative.
"Applied Plans as seen in Syra- cuse, New York" was the title of an address by Guy Greer of New York City, a member of the Board of Editors of Fortune Magazine, who opened his discussion by quot- ing the prologue to a planning pro- gram in which the promise of bene- fits to be realized by the public from planning was set forth excellently. This was followed by certain major points for guidance, including bring- ing up to date all phases of planning; the necessity that the government of a community must fit the com- munity geographically (citing St. Louis as an example) ; the necessity for overhauling the community physical structure so that the bur- den on real estate could be relieved;
cleaning up their errors of the past. Mr. Greer further advised against the hoarding of State surplus funds at a time when they could be of great aid to community planning, and advocated that if Federal aid was to be available to cities, the qualifying requirements should not be too strict — in other words, only simple elemental planning should be required of cities to qualify for Fed- eral aid. He closed with the ad- monition that planners must put over their ideas to the public in plain words.
S. Burns Weston, Cleveland, Ohio, on the subject of Cleveland's Post- war Programs and Citizen Support, opened his discussion with a query as to the purpose of plans which he felt every community and planning group should ask itself. He pointed out that war is the greatest plan- ning effort ever made in this Nation, and that our problems of commu- nity planning now under way for the postwar period are also enormous, but that the urban communities cannot ask the Federal Government to do the job for them, although cooperation of the Federal Govern- ment is highly essential. Mr. Wes- ton reviewed the history of urban and regional planning at Cleveland, which now appears to have an effective organization and program of action on a metropolitan basis.
Edward D. Connor, Executive Director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Detroit, Michi- gan, discussing the same subject for Detroit, expressed his emphatic
20
Planning and Civic Comment
belief that citizen support of plan- ning should mean total participa- tion by citizens. He expressed the feeling that the public is largely indifferent throughout the Country at large and sought to examine the reasons, concluding that people look at postwar planning as to- morrow's job although we are, for example, building tomorrow's slums now. Mr. Connor felt also that the Master Plan is too often considered to be the final answer, with the re- sultant complaisance and indif- ference. He pointed out that in many cases blighted areas are stud- ied individually without their refer- ence to the whole community plan, and that people are inclined to think of "services" rather than of "facili- ties." He urged that the public be taken into the confidence of all planning groups so that every one would know what the problems are. Mr. Connor also suggested that the AMERICAN PLANNING & Civic ASSO- CIATION be a clearing house for ideas and information, as a beneficial ser- vice to the planning efforts of the urban communities of the United States.
Bertram D. Tallamy, Chief En- gineer of the Niagara Frontier Planning Board, Buffalo, New York, described the area known as the Niagara Frontier, being at the junction of the Great Lakes, the New York State barge canals and railroads with heavy industrial pro- duction dominant. He outlined the probable postwar unemployment problem, affecting possibly 100,000 people, asserting that it was evident that the area must rely heavily on private employment. He noted that the first regional planning body in
the United States was established in the Niagara frontier area. He suggested a classification of planned projects under the two headings of: (1) Indispensable projects deferred by war. (2) Projects not indispen- sable, but necessary to continued progress or growth. As an example of the first, he outlined the regional water supply program of his area. He pointed out that the Niagara Frontier Association, composed of over 300 leading citizens, carries out the Public Relations program for the area.
Some discussions followed these talks. Mr. Greer was asked about the use of radio in the Syracuse planning effort and he described an excellent sequence of radio programs in which the City of Syracuse was put on trial and a jury rendered verdicts according to the evidence given. An interesting feature of this was that the jury made its decisions on the spot without resorting to prepared script, and that sometimes the decisions were rather discon- certing. However, the program really enlisted public interest.
The question was raised as to any solutions that could be cited with respect to handling racial housing and Mr. Connor of Detroit explained the solution that seemed to have universal support in Detroit, in- volving the construction of a large housing development for negroes on a segregated basis. With respect to the very delicate problem of hand- ling racial disturbances such as Detroit experienced in the summer of 1943, Mr. Connor cited the hand- ling of a similar frictional situation that was on the point of bursting
21
Planning and Civic Comment
into demonstrations in the State of Colorado with respect to Japanese internees. A whirlwind campaign of state-wide education by picked flying squadrons that had been
rapidly but thoroughly instructed, cleared up the Colorado situation and avoided unfortunate episodes that appeared to be inescapable at first.
The After Breakfast Round Table on Friday morning on National Resources and and Conservation was presided over by Prof. Philip H. Elwood, Head Department of Landscape Architecture, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa, who was kind enough also to serve as Reporter in the absence of J. W. Clark.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman stressed the need for frankness in discussing the real problems confronted while working out state planning programs rather than pompous recitals of the achievements, organizations, or proj- ects of each state board.
He recalled briefly the recent renaissance of state planning under various names and compared it to the broad conservation movement which was given its initial impetus by President Theodore Roosevelt just after the turn of the century.
The need for local "grass roots" planning by localities, counties and States was pointed out, if we ever are to expect sound and continuing planning at the national level.
Miss Elisabeth Herlihy, Chair- man of the Massachusetts State Planning Board noted that the State Enabling Act of 1913 made official planning boards compulsory in towns, with over 10,000 popula- tion and optional in smaller com- munities. The State now has 159 local planning boards and 117 zon- ing acts. There is a state association of town planning boards which meets annually for exchange of ideas.
The Massachusetts State Plan- ning Board was established in 1937 and now has an appropriation of
$50,000 per year for correlating, advising and assisting local boards and other state agencies in their planning work but the State Board does not make detailed plans.
While the Postwar Planning set- up did not "stem from the State Planning Board" it works with the large private enterprise committee on postwar adjustments set up one month before "Pearl Harbor" and the older, emergency public works committee. The Massachusetts State Planning Board has assisted thelatter committee in sifting a list of more than 600 projects to cost $200,000,- 000 down to $14,000,000 construc- tion for immediate work mostly on state institutions.
Massachusetts cooperates with other State Planning Boards of the region and is a member of the New England Regional Planning Coun- cil. This cooperation is particularly active concerning aviation, popula- tion studies, and housing.
The Indiana Economic Council, the successor to the former State Planning Board has, said its en- gineer, Mr. Raymond L. Pike, an annual appropriation of $25,000. This is used to promote and co- ordinate all postwar plans both private and public.
The Commission has a broad program under eleven active com-
22
Planning and Civic Comment
mittees, representing a wide diver- sity of interests such as agriculture, commerce, construction, education, health, housing, labor, population, transportation, and resources. The Indiana Economic Council is evi- dently off to a good start on a broad sound program of planning.
A remark by Miss Herlihy con- cerning an effort to place the major emphasis on population rather than state road mileage in allocating funds for the construction of the proposed Interregional or Interstate System of Federal and State High- ways brought a sharp response from Mr. Vincent J. Jaeger, Director of the New Mexico State Planning Board who called the attention of the group to the approximate 400 mile by 400 mile size of the State of New Mexico which in relation to its relatively sparse population makes obvious the unfairness of the popu- lation emphasis, advocated by the more densely settled States. He suggested a 4 to 1 ratio with area rather than population given the advantage. He also called attention to the fact that more than one-half the land area of the State is Feder- ally or state owned. Mr. Jaeger in answer to a question from the Chair- man said that though one of the super interstate highways (speed- ways they might be called if the proposed minimum "speed of not less than 75 miles an hour by pas- senger vehicles and of not less than 60 miles an hour by truck and tractor combinations" is permitted to be carried into effect) passes through the Sante Fe area, plans are being made to protect the unique beauty and character of that city.
Through cooperative planning, the Texas State Highway Com- mission landscape and other plan- ning and design engineers are work- ing with the Federal Public Roads Administration as well as city plan commissions and they are endeavor- ing to comply with the objectives of the "Interregional Highways5' as expressed in the President's message to Congress on that subject. This was brought out by Mr. J. D. Wood of Dallas, Texas, who said that an outstanding group of nationally known city planners and engineers have been employed by the State to study thoroughly the entire prob- lem of highway location and design in relation to mass transportation, traffic, street patterns and suburban development. Again it seems Texas is leading the way in a very impor- tant field of planning, that of the relationship of urban and rural transportation.
Mr. Robert Kingery was called on for comment concerning the hand- ling of these major thoroughfares in the Chicago region. Always an ad- vocate of home rule as applied to planning, Mr. Kingery pointed out the careful and evidently success- ful manner in which the Chicago suburban region is planning to protect itself and obtain the best service from the super highways now operating or planned for the future in that area. It is indeed encouraging evidence that coop- eration at all levels in planning really pays. He declared that a 35 mile an hour mentality and a 75 to 90 mile an hour machine is a very dangerous combination and urged consideration of a lower speed of perhaps 50 miles for safety, comfort and pleasure.
23
Planning and Civic Comment
One of the outstanding coopera- tive research and planning projects in the country was ably outlined by Mr. Arthur T. Denny of the Mis- souri State Commission of Resources and Development. This is the suc- cessor to the Missouri State Plan- ning Board under whose direction this project was launched. This study began in 1940 and includes the entire watershed of the Meramec River drainage basin, west of the city of St. Louis 35 percent of which is within or near the basin. This area of about 4,000 square miles was one of three cooperative re- search and planning projects being conducted in widely separated areas (one in Massachusetts and the other in California) by the National Re- sources Planning Board when that agency was abolished by Congress. Fortunately the Missouri State Plan- ning Board and now the Missouri Resources and Development Com- mission are carrying on the study.
A part of the watershed has been proposed for use as a Mississippi River flood control reservoir. The Missouri State Planning Board wished to evaluate the area's present recreational use from an economic standpoint with investments, land values and total costs and opera- tional expense of all types of recrea- tional activities included. This al- ready has given some interesting and a few startling figures on recreational values which formerly were but guesses.
A thorough analysis of the qual- ity and quantity of water, the soil, the forests, minerals, fish and wild
life and other resources were all studied. These investigations in- volved technicians and officials at all levels of government and it was gratifying to note the earnest de- sire of all to contribute and to co- operate in such a unique and com- prehensive an undertaking.
At the time of the abolition of the National Resources Planning Board, their consulting engineer W. W. Homer of St. Louis was the director of the entire project. He has volun- teered his services on the continued study.
It is encouraging to note that the soundness and need for continuation and completion of the project has been recognized and that the work goes on.
The Director of the Missouri State Park Commission, Mr. I. T. Bode, explained the interest and coopera- tion of that agency, particularly on fish and fishing as well as other wild life problems and resources.
It is to be hoped that the final reports will provide for the very best uses of the resources of this de- lightfully charming valley for all the people concerned.
Several others including Messrs. Webster of Rhode Island, Hugman of Texas and Hare of Kansas City made interesting and stimulating comments, the latter emphasized the importance of continuity in all planning operations particularly when in reference to conservation and use of natural resources if the best and most efficient results are to be obtained.
24
Planning and Civic Comment
RURAL POSTWAR PLANNING was the subject of the Friday morning session. True D. Morse, President of the Doane Agricultural Service, St. Louis, presided. Prof. H. O. Whittemore, Ann Arbor, Michigan, served as Reporter.
The speakers on the subject of Rural Postwar Planning were un- usually well selected. The all- important subject of international factors in postwar agricultural plan- ning was discussed by Dr. Karl Brandt of the Food Research In- stitute at Stanford University. The problem of agricultural surpluses in such countries as Canada, Argentina and the U. S. A., and the various attempts at crop production and surplus controls, the natural resent- ment of individual farmers at such restrictions, and the extreme diffi- culty of securing international agree- ment on controls were brought out. As against that, the low level of food subsistence in heavily popu- lated countries was emphasized. Here, then, there exists a perpetual lack of adequate and varied foods. The listener could not but conclude from Dr. Brandt's remarks that there is not, and never has been, any such thing in the world as over- production in agriculture. The prob- lem lies in poor, expensive, and ar- tificially restricted distribution of goods and supplies, and in an over- population in the less favorable, and under-population in the more favorable food producing areas. Crop controls can at best be only a disagreeable and painful, perhaps even dangerous temporary pallia- tive. A freer flow of food supplies, raw materials, manufactured prod- ucts, industries, and people to where they are needed seems to be the answer. "Live and let live!"
Dean H. P. Rusk, of the College of Agriculture, University of Illinois,
presented the "Soil Conservation District as a Democratic Institution for Conservation of Agricultural Resources." Within a few short years the showing of the improved practices in the established soil conservation districts has been little short of remarkable. Beside saving nearly all the top soil that had been wasting away, crop production has increased 14 to 28 percent, he stated. The "district" also serves as a means of developing a community enterprise and effort toward a benef- icent end. Not only is there con- servation of soil, but also of moisture and of human time and effort, and of established community values and institutions. These scientific practices will also assist in flood control, in navigation, and in pro- duction of electric power, by pre- venting silting of pools and chan- nels. The most important contribu- tion of all lies in the training of people's minds to think in broad and deep scientific channels, to have an unstinted curiosity to find the most efficient, economical, and in the long run, the best way of doing things. The much discussed juris- dictional conflict between the S.C.S. and the local state agricultural agent organization is not merely a tempest in a teapot, it is one aspect of the greatest political issue of the 1944 campaign — centralized Federal control versus subsidized state con- trol over local activities.
The much discussed question of whether the returning soldiers will seek the land was ably presented by Dr. O. R. Johnson, Professor of
25
Planning and Civic Comment
Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri. He pointed out the opportunities which were: 1. the average age of the present farmers is approaching that of retirement, 2. the need of part time intensive production on small farms in the neighborhood of decentralized in- dustrial cities, 3. the large amount of undeveloped and second grade lands yet available through irriga- tion, drainage and soil improvement practices. On the other hand he pointed out the difficulties: 1. the danger of over-production of agri- cultural products with consequent unprofitable selling prices, 2. large capital investment to buy good land and for buildings, modern equip- ment, and good stock, 3. the great
and varied skills needed by the suc- cessful farmer, acquired only by long training and experience, which would now almost automatically eliminate all but those soldiers who have been raised on farms.
As Dr. Bushrod Allin of the Bu- reau of Agricultural Economics at Washington commented, in dis- cussing the papers, that Dr. Brandt's paper might be considered as a dis- cussion of Professor Johnson's. The whole question revolves around the possibility of an improved exchange of goods and services throughout the world, when a lift of only ten percent in the standard of diet would probably wipe out all agricultural surpluses the world over.
The subject of the Friday luncheon session was REDEDI CATION TO CONSER- VATION. Horace M. Albright, President, APCA, presided and Ben H. Thompson, National Park Service, Chicago, acted as Reporter.
Tom Wallace, Editor of the Louisville Times, spoke about the "chamber of commerce" point of view versus conservation. Mr. Wal- lace indicated the "chamber of com- merce" point of view as that myopic glance at the nearest dollar. Cham- bers of commerce often oppose pol- lution control and parks because such projects are "not practical." The trouble is that chambers of com- merce and, indeed the public gener- ally, often lack the information which the planners have assembled. Here, Mr. Wallace said, is where the small newspapers throughout the country should come in. Collective- ly, they are an irresistible force, and if they are properly informed on a conservation issue they will "put it across."
Newton B. Drury, Director of the
National Park Service, stated that the widespread misunderstanding of the Jackson Hole case clearly shows that park proponents must be as assiduous in presenting the facts as park opponents are in spreading er- rors. The real issue at Jackson Hole is whether that area is to be pre- served or is to be sacrificed. Today the whole park concept itself is chal- lenged. We must have an effective voice to call attention to the need for saving the spiritual and cultural values of our land. Park resources are not being locked up, Mr. Drury said. They are being put to their highest use. Last year more than three million men and women in the armed forces visited America's na- tional and historic shrines in the national park system. It is our pri- (Continued on page 55)
26
H
Last year two million men and women in the armed forces visited America s national parks. They went to these scenic master- pieces and historic shrines primarily jor re- laxation, to learn something more about America, and for the inspiration that these reservations were set apart to give. And they went to the parks for other reasons: to study military strategy; to test different types of equipment under different conditions; for various kinds of field exer- cises and maneuvers; for ski training; for combat practice; and for rehabilitation of the wounded.
PARKS presents a cross section of these activities.
Cover. WACS at Port McHenry, the birthplace of the national anthem.
Photograph courtesy of Signal Corps, Third Service Command
Left. Soldiers going down into the Grand Canyon.
ograph courtesy of Kolb
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Officer candidates march briskly along the Confederate lines atPetersburgon their way to Port Stedman on the Union line. Here they learn about the problems of supply of both the Union and Confeder- ate armies.
Photograph courtesy of Public Relations, Quartermaster School, Camp Lee, Virginia
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Upper left. Soldiers study the Revolutionary Battle of Yorktown, where Cornwallis was forced to surrender.
Above. Officer candidates maneuver over the ground made fa- mous by Picketfs Charge at Gettysburg, while {Lower left/, other men and women of the armed forces study the Battle of Gettysburg from Little Round Top, the key position in that decisive battle.
Photographs courtesy of the Department of the Interior, unless otherwise indicated.
Jhe Big Trees and Vernal Pall in Yosemite are enjoyed by visiting troops.
.
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.
Left. Troops inspect the fabulous ruins of prehistoric cliff -cities in the Mesa Verde.
Right. A sailor convalesces in one of the national parks.
Below. Ski troops at Mount Rainier.
Photograph courtesy of U. S. Arm;
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Americans on furlough at Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska.
Photograph courtesy of U. S. Arm
Below. French and British sailors play an old French ball gam e at Hopewell Village National Historic Site in Pennsylvania, where our ancestors probably made cannon balls to hurl at the British in ' 76.
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State Park
Disposal of more than half of the 46 recreational demonstration areas developed and administered by the National Park Service under the 10- year-old Federal program of retiring submarginal agricultural lands, developing them for recreational use for nearby communities, and later deeding them to the respective State Conservation authorities, has been announced by the National Park Service.
Seventeen and part of another have been transferred to the re- spective States for park purposes. Nine and portion of another have been added to the National Park Service, primarily to existing park areas. One has been transferred to the Bureau of Reclamation.
It is expected that 13 additional demonstration areas will be trans- ferred to the respective States or political subdivisions thereof when these are in a position to take over their administration. Five are being temporarily retained in their present status, awaiting determination of the best disposition to make of them.
Appointment of Tom Wallace, Editor of the Louisville Times, to membership on the National Parks Advisory Board was announced early in August. Mr. Wallace is one
of the founders of the Ohio Valley Regional Conference on State Parks, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Confer- ence on State Parks. He was elected Second Vice-President of the Ameri- can Planning and Civic Association at its June Conference in St. Louis. Mr. Wallace will fill the vacancy on the Advisory Board caused by the death of Col. Richard Lieber.
Kentucky: Russel Dyche has been appointed new state Park director.
North Carolina: R. J. Pearse is acting as Superintendent of State Parks in the absence of Tom Morse who has been called for service in the Navy.
A recommendation has been made by the Hanover Board of County Commissioners proposing the con- version of the Fort Fisher area into a State Developed park in which the historical character of the Fort and its environs may be preserved As announced in the Raleigh News and Observer, July 12, the Com- missioners were advised of the plan in a communication from the Wil- mington City Planning Board. No funds for the acquisition or develop- ment of such a park are now avail- able, but it is the intention of the State Department of Conservation
43
Planning and Civic Comment
and Development to request funds for specific new park projects at the next session of the legislature and to include Fort Fisher in such a bill.
Fort Fisher is the site of the first fortifications in Colonial days on the Cape Fear River. The Fort had its climax in the Civil War, when after valiant defense by the Confederate forces holding the Fort, it fell in 1865. A good account of this area is contained in "Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 1660-1916" by James Sprunt.
Iowa: V. W. Flickinger, Chief, Division of Lands and Waters of the Iowa State Conservation Com- mission, advises that he has been placed on inactive duty by the War Department and has returned to his duties at Des Moines. He served as Captain in the Army at Newport News and Camp Stewart, Ga.
Indiana: The Indiana Economic Council is preparing to publish a booklet to be entitled, "County Forests for Indiana." As Col. Lieber had considerable to do with the passage of the 1943 Enabling Act and was always a keen advocate of community forests, this booklet has been dedicated to him.
The Conference regretfully re- cords the death of Col. David C. Chapman, long a valued member of the Board of Directors, and one of the most potent forces for the creation of the Great Smoky Moun- tains National Park. Col. Chapman died on July 26th at his home on Topside. At the time of his death he was aiding in planning a scenic parkway to skirt the Great Smokies.
Col. Chapman's name will go down in conservation history for his
leadership in the movement to es- tablish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His battle for the park covered a decade and it was an uphill task, all the way. In recog- nition of his untiring efforts towards the establishment of the Park, the fourth highest mountain of the Great Smokies was named after him. This peak is 6450 feet in height and in 1931 was designated Mt. Chapman by the U. S. Geo- graphic Board. Also, the wide con- crete highway from Knoxville into the park is named Chapman High- way in his honor.
Albert M. Turner, retired secre- tary of the Connecticut State Parks and Forest Commission, died at Northfield on June 29th. As secre- retary of the Commission he had charge of the selection, development and organization of the state public parks and forests. In 1933 he had been the recipient of the silver medal bestowed by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, for his work in developing the park system in Connecticut.
For many years Mr. Turner was a valued member of the Conference and the APCA.
The Board of Directors of the NCSP held a meeting in St. Louis, on June 17th. The President is now serving also in the position of Chairman through the death of Col. Lieber, and it was decided to fill the position of Second Vice-President, which had been left unfilled as a memorial to William Carson. James F. Evans of New York was elected to fill this vacancy.
44
Summer Round Tables
Denver. On June 23, Mr. L. F. Eppich, Chairman of the Denver Planning Commission, gave a lunch in the Daniels and Fisher Tower in honor of Harlean James. Among those present were: Mayor B. F. Stapleton, Dr. H. C. Dolph and Georgia Cox of the City Council, Mr. Eppich, Carl Feiss and Mrs. Ella Parr James of the Planning Commission, C. M. Lightburn, Irvin J. McCrary, Ray M. Morris, Vice- President of the Mountain States Tel. and Tel., Edward D. Nicholson of the United Air Lines, A. J. Brom- field, El Roy Nelson of the Colorado State Planning Commission, E. H. Peterson of the Rio Grande Fuel Co. M. Walter Pesman, A. E. Upton of the National City Bank, and I. B. Sutton of Tampico, Mexico. Post- war urban development and housing were discussed.
Los Angeles. At the Chapman- Park-Hotel lunch of the American Planning and Civic Association, held July 22, five local planning commissions were represented — City and County of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale, with the Los Angeles Commission leading in attendance of Messrs. Bennett, Smoots, Wall, Belser and Eisner, and Glendale second, with Messrs. Smith, Carlton and Albers and Miss Edwards. Pasadena was represented by Sylvanus B. Marston, Chairman and J. Marshall Miller, Planning Director. The L. A. Co. Commis- sion was represented by J. A. Mellon and P. F. Shrimpton. Reginald Johnson (See Review of the Town Hall Report on Urban Redevelop-
ment) was present and afterwards conducted a small group around his Baldwin Hills Development (which is being written up for Pencil Points by Catherine Bauer). Walter Leim- ert, an eminent realtor of Los Ange- les, contributed to the discussion an apt comparison. He said that for private builders to oppose public housing was just as foolish as for manufacturers of automobiles to oppose mass transportation, since in both instances we need both to serve the entire public. Others pres- ent were: Stiles Clements, Ralph D. Cornell, Ann Mumford of the Haynes Foundation, Whitney Smith, Everett Mansur, Will G. Norris, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Whitnall, Mrs. A. Sherman Hoyt, William Hall, and Edith James. Harlean James reported on the status of pending planning legislation in Washington.
Santa Barbara. On July 25, Miss Pearl Chase called together a group of local officials and civic leaders to promote coordination of postwar planning by the various agencies. Harlean James made a brief report on the latest news from Washington.
San Francisco. Mr. L. Deming Tilton, Member of the Board of Directors of the American Planning and Civic Association, called the local members together at a lunch at the Palace Hotel on August 2. Harlean James reported on pending Conservation legislation, postwar planning and urban development. The group was fortunate in having present Lawrence Orton, member of the New York City Planning Com-
45
Planning and Civic Comment
mission, who spoke in favor of or- ganized citizen support in the plan- ning field. Of special interest to the group were the pending bills to abolish Jackson Hole National Mon- ument and repeal part of the An- tiquities Act. Questions were also asked about the threatned power on the Potomac. Among those present were: Duncan McDuffie, Francis Farquhar, A. P. Giannini, Major O. A. Tomlinson, Regional Director
of the National Park Service, Harold L. Curtis, General Manager and Supt. of the East Bay Regional Park District, Messrs. Kleiser and Barry of Foster and Kleiser, Mr. and Mrs. Barrett of the San Jose Planning Commission, Howard Bissell of the Stockton Planning Commission, and in addition to Mr. Tilton from the San Francisco Planning Commission were Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Bissantz.
Strictly Personal
Henry V. Hubbard of Boston has been reappointed for a third term of four years to the National Capital Park and Planning Commission. In his letter of reappointment, Presi- dent Roosevelt thanked Mr. Hub- bard for his valuable public service.
Mrs. Wardlaw Steele, Secretary of the Tennessee State Planning Commission, has been honored by election to membership on the Board of Directors of Friends of the Land, national conservation organization.
Margaret Kay Stewart, formerly assistant director and later executive secretary of the Urban Land In- stitute, has returned to her former position as executive secretary of the Denver Real Estate Exchange, the Colorado Association of Real Estate Boards and the Denver Asso- ciation of Building Owners and Managers, assuming her duties on August 1st.
J. Alexander Walker has returned to his former post as Executive
Engineer with the Town Planning Commission, Vancouver, B. C., after an absence of four years with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps at Ottawa. He reports that the Com- mission has undertaken a review of Vancouver's City Plan under the guidance of Harland Bartholomew and Associates, who were the con- sultants on the original plan.
William W. Wurster has been appointed Dean of the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, succeeding Dean Walter R. MacCornack, who retired on July 1st.
Frank H. Malley, former execu- tive director of the Boston City Planning Board is now serving as Planning Director of the Buffalo City Planning Commission.
Philip M. Klutenick, former NHA assistant administrator has been appointed by President Roosevelt to succeed Herbert Emmerich, re- tiring Commissioner of FPHA.
46
APCA Presents Its Viewpoint on Housing
EDITOR'S NOTE : The Sub-Committee on Housing and Urban Redevelopment, of which Senator Taft is Chairman, is gathering information from various interested groups for the development of a postwar housing program. The following letter from Harlean James, Executive Secretary, presents the principles the Association is supporting.
110 South Berendo Street Los Angeles, Calif. June 29, 1944
Honorable Robert A. Taft, Chair- man,
Sub-Committee on Housing and Urban Redevelopment,
Special Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Planning,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C
Dear Senator Taft : Urban Redevelopment^
As a desirable activity in our cities and as a means of supplying additional employment when it is required to keep up a high level of employment, we are committed to urban redevelopment on a broad scale, with housing fitted into its appropriate place together with other land uses in the local city plans. We are committed to the use of private enterprise for the housing of American citizens where private enterprise can produce housing in accordance with local city planning and zoning, without subsidies, within the ability of householders to pay; but we advocate public housing for those whose incomes will not permit them to pay the prices for housing produced by private enterprise. We point to the District of Colum- bia as a place where the technique of public housing has been espe- cially well worked out.
We should like to go on record as favoring the inclusion of bousing
schedules in the next decennial census and thereafter so that we may dis- cover trends as well as static in- formation. Perhaps we should have such a census every five years during the years of great population shifts and changes. Perhaps the questions can be improved in some respects, but in so far as possible we should secure comparable data at the suc- ceeding censuses.
The production of bousing during the war under stress of extraordinary needs and time pressures has directed our attention to the desirability of greater participation in decisions by local governmental and planning officials and to the essential need for conforming with local plans and zoning as well as local housing codes.
In the postwar period we should like to see private enterprise given opportunity to do its best work but we believe that it should be definitely restricted in location, lay-out and types of houses by the local plan- ning commissions. This would pre- vent the city from being obliged to maintain utilities in great unused areas while developers crossed the city limits to place housing on land without proper utilities and with no school, park and other neighborhood facilities. Metropolitan, as well as city planning is indicated here.
The consolidation of the Federal Authorities dealing with bousing has already brought about many gains and has disclosed certain overlap- ping functions which indicates fur-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ther simplification. During recent years the entire financing of home- building has been revolutionized and many private lending agencies are already followipg the lead of Governmental and quasf-govern- mental agencies in substituting the 15, 20 or longer term loans with regular amortizing payments for three or five-year flat loans, falling due at intervals and requiring new commissions for renewals, with re- curring threats to home-buyers of losing their properties if they cannot pay off the entire outstanding loans. In the postwar period it is to be hoped that public loans, ensured mortgages and private loans alike will conform to the newly established principles favorable to home owner- ship and moderate rentals.
In the first months and perhaps years of the postwar period there will probably be a shortage of many building materials which will affect the volume of construction as well as its quality. Since bidding in a free market for short supplies of materials would automatically raise the price of homes beyond the general price level, it would seem desirable to continue into the postwar period some control over prices oj building materials, with, however more flexibility than has been pos- sible during the war and the sym- pathetic understanding of the prob- lems of the building industry and the public. These controls should be discontinued as soon as adequate supplies oj building materials are available.
One of the difficulties to providing an adequate structure — Federal, state and local — for public and pri- vate housing is that heretofore the
problem has been treated largely on a house-to-house or a project-to- project basis. But now when the proposals for extensive urban re- development come to be examined it appears that acquiring, replanning and rebuilding great areas in cities involves comprehensive planning and that housing is only one of the elements in city building.
Because of undue Federal domi- nation, all too often types of residence units have been introduced into communities which were not suited to the climate and customs of the area. Again this indicates more and better local planning and more adequate local control.
It may be that if we are to tackle the problem with a fresh outlook for the postwar period we should pro- pose some over-all Federal service planning agency — perhaps as a part of a reconstituted National Planning Agency or perhaps independently — into which housing agencies might fit. Perhaps our approach to bousing should be through planning rather than to planning through housing. A number of housing agencies — notably FHA — have endeavored to authorize loans on projects in con- formity with local comprehensive plans where they existed; but an examination of the housing projects throughout the country, built under various auspices, and especially those under so-called local housing authorities, discloses the fact that frequently the projects have been mislocated in relation to local plan- ning and zoning and that they have sometimes violated local building codes.
Whatever new legal structure is set up — whether it be a planning
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Planning and Civic Comment
service, with housing as a part of planning, or a new or modified com- bination of housing agencies, it would seem clear that local planning and governing officials should be brought more definitely into the procedures and that so-called local housing authorities should in fact be local housing authorities. This principle applies to the agencies which will decide on demolition of war housing as well as the agencies which will have to do with new housing.
For legislation on urban redevelop- ment in the national field there are several pending bills in Congress, but most of these bills could be im- proved or simplified. A number of efforts are being made in this direc- tion and it is to be assumed that Congress will have before it one or more new bills for urban redevelop- ment, which will provide for ade- quate planning controls for private and public construction of all sorts in the redeveloped areas.
From the local point of view (though with some adjustments be- cause of the special situation exist- ing in the District of Columbia) probably one of the best measures so far proposed is S 1930 which was drawn by Alfred Bettman of Cin- cinnati and considered for at least a year by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and modi- fied to conform to the experience of Commission members.
It is recognized that urban re- development is needed in large areas in most American cities. This seems possible only when considerable areas of property can be acquired, under the power of condemnation and with low-rate loans from the
Federal Government or other sources. In a number of pending bills the write-down between the price that it is necessary to pay for the property and the price at which it should be valued and assessed for its new use is to be assumed by Federal or local governments. This is probably desirable in some cases, but we have yet to find a method where the pressures will be con- stantly exerted to bring the two levels closer, as subsidies tend to push purchase prices up and the new use agencies — whether public or private — tend to push use values down. In the long run, with ex- perienced administrators it might be possible to balance, or nearly so, the write-ups and the write-downs, and in any event probably increases in local taxation might repay the city for the net write-downs.
Most authorities favor the provision that all bousing, public and private, be subject to local real estate taxes. Some proposals are being advanced to provide that depreciation on homes may be deducted from the Federal income tax returns of own- ers just as they are now taken on business property.
One discrimination against public bousing which has been brought out in the testimony before committees in Congress is that while private builders, operating the year round, may secure the B schedule of union wages, the Government, even on houses for low-income groups, must pay the A scale, so that low-cost houses must pay at the same rate as on monumental public buildings. This discrimination should be re- moved by Congress.
Finally, let us emphasize the fact
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Planning and Civic Comment
that we shall need both private and public housing to meet the needs of all groups of citizens; that we should make the utmost use of private enterprise for all self-supporting houses and projects; that we should resort to public housing when direct family subsidies are needed to bridge the gap between cost and ability to pay rent; that the task of rebuilding our cities is predominantly one of local planning, however financed, and includes all elements of the comprehensive plan in which hous- ing has its place. We are especially concerned with the residential neigh- borhood which should be the right
size and shape to provide in con- venient locations the schools, li- braries, parks, business and market- ing centers and other facilities which a modern neighborhood demands.
In the postwar period, let us build for permanency and let us set up the safeguards which will prevent a repetition of the creeping blight which has overtaken such large areas in most of our cities.
Respectfully submitted,
AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
By HARLEAN JAMES, Executive Secretary
How Vermont Solves Its Billboard Problem
By HORACE BROWN, Chairman, Vermont Association for Billboard Restriction
There has been considerable in- terest expressed as to how Vermont is working out its billboard problem. It is the purpose of this article to give a bit of history covering the beginnings of the Vermont Asso- ciation for Billboard Restriction, as well as the story of its later ac- complishments and plans for the future. The town of Springfield, Vermont (a townshipasdistinguished from the village) lies on the Con- necticut River and is crossed by the Black River on which the village of Springfield is located.
There were never any commercial billboards in the town until the spring of 1937. Then seven large poster boards were erected, all in scenic locations, four with the Connecticut River as a background, three on country roads leading into the village. To combat this dis- figurement and threat to our road-
sides a local committee was or- ganized, which arranged that a dozen protesting letters should go to each advertiser every month. The result was that the billboard owner soon found it was bad busi- ness to have the advertiser con- stantly reminded of the growing sentiment and public opinionagainst this form of advertising and rather than permit this to happen he left his boards vacant. Within a year and a half the billboard owner re- moved all of his boards in the town. With this as a beginning there was organized a state committee under the title of the Vermont Asso- ciation for Billboard Restriction, its purposes being to study the bill- board situation in the State and to learn how other States were handling the problem and to de- termine what laws seemed most efficacious for billboard control.
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Planning and Civic Comment
A study of Vermont roadside conditions revealed that the big billboards were increasing at the rate of about 10 percent per year and that the number had doubled in ten years. These figures proved the need of a better and more drastic law.
The committee went to work to inform public spirited individuals and groups in the State of the situation. It labored for a year building up public opinion, calling attention to the harm the billboards are doing to our scenery. This educational campaign was carried on continuously by various means until the next meeting of the legis- lature in January, 1939.
By that time the committee had made a comprehensive study of the laws of the various States and found most of them lamentably weak in real roadside protection.
In response to the efforts of our committee the 1939 legislature en- acted a law which is generally re- garded by the roadside councils of the various States as being one of the best in the country. In both New York and New Hampshire attempts have been made to pass similar laws.
Perhaps the most striking feature of our statute is the removal of all rural billboards to a distance from the center of the road as many linear feet as there are square feet in the board. The most numerous boards — the poster boards — are moved back 240 feet. Under the old law they might stand 35 feet from the center of the road. It is not too much to say that up to the time of the passage of the new law the billboard people had had a free hand to desecrate our scenery.
The present setback requirement does not apply in what are known as thickly settled places, which are defined in the law. The effect is to drive many of the billboards from scenic locations to the villages and cities where one is not so keenly aware of their incongruity.
The above law proved very dis- tasteful to the billboard interests, who for so many years had had a free hand in the locating of their signs.
In the summer of 1942 Miss Ruth Wilson, a talented young New York lawyer, had published in the George- town Law Review an article de- veloping the theory (which had already received some small recog- nition in the courts) that billboards are not so much a use of the abutting property as they are of the highways, which are intended for quite differ- ent purposes. Miss Wilson expanded this theory with fine logic and developed its relation to the ancient and well-recognized real estate con- cepts of easements in land.
Then along came the billboard people (with apparently no knowl- edge of Miss Wilson's article and its newer thought) and in an ili-ad vised moment attempted to have the Vermont billboard law declared un- constitutional by the Vermont Su- preme Court.
At this point Jeremiah Evarts, a former Vermonter, then Assistant Corporation Counsel in New York City and the Attorney General of the State of New York, stirred thereto by Park Commissioner Rob- ert Moses, whose hatred of the dis- figuring billboards is well known, presented a brief before the Vermont Supreme Court on behalf of the
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Planning and Civic Comment
State of New York, New York City, and the Long Island Park Com- mission, and in defense of our Ver- mont billboard law advanced all of Miss Wilson's arguments.
The result was that not only was the constitutionality of the law sus- tained by a unanimous vote, but the court went much further and, accepting Miss Wilson's theories, gave the opinion that commercial billboards located on private road- side property have no inherent rights over the highways, and that if the State or a municipality enacts a law restricting or even prohibiting highway advertising, neither the property owner nor the billboard owner is deprived of any consti- tutional rights. Kelbro, Inc. v. Myrick, Secretary of State, 113 Vt. 64; same case, 30 Atlantic Reporter (2nd Series), 527 (January, 1943).
The opinion of the Supreme Court takes the view that Vermont cities, towns and villages have com- plete local option: they may enact their own laws for the protection of their roadsides. Business signs which pertain exclusively to the property itself, its rental, sale, or business conducted thereon, are not restricted in any way by this opinion or by the statute.
In Springfield town meeting last March, by way of implementing the
Supreme Court opinion, there was passed a measure prohibiting in the town all commercial signs of over forty square feet, excepting those pertaining exclusively to business on the property. Springfield has thus settled its billboard problem for years to come.
Now, having thus established complete local option as to the regulation of commercial roadside advertising in Vermont, it is planned to give wide publicity to this situation.
The Vermont Association for Billboard Restriction takes it to be its duty to inform the selectmen of every town in the state where the large commercial billboards exist what a town may legally do in limiting or prohibiting billboards.
The Association plans to enlist the aid of public-spirited citizens who are offended by billboards in those towns, in order that they may start action well before town-meet- ing day by framing measures, per- haps similar to the Springfield or- dinance, to limit the size of com- mercial billboards and by getting the people of the town interested in its passage.
Never before has a similar op- portunity been offered to the people of any State.
Recent Court Decisions
Compiled by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, New York, N.Y. Urban Redevelopment Corporations Company (Stuyvesant Town) and
Law — Constitutionality
based on the same facts as were
This is a taxpayers' action arising involved in Murray vs. LaGuardia out of the development project of (see quarterlies for January and the Metropolitan Life Insurance April, 1944). Two issues not raised
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Planning and Civic Comment
in the Murray case were disposed of by the court. The first claim was that a provision in the city charter was violated in the contract between the city and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, since that contract contained a grant of fran- chise by the city for which the char- ter required a three-fourths vote of the board of estimate. But the court held that there was no grant of franchise and that the vote of the board of estimate of eleven to five fully met the provision in the urban redevelopment corporation law that only a majority vote of the board of estimate was necessary when there had already been an approval of the terms of the contract by the City Plan Commission, and the vote of the board of estimate was merely a confirmation.
The second claim was that there was discrimination against negroes in the proposed renting policy of the Metropolitan. On this point the court said that the contract between the city and the Metropolitan must be carried out in accordance with law and if at any time an illegal renting policy were adopted, the persons aggrieved would have their remedy. The claim made here was premature.
Pratt v. LaGuardia et al. New York Supreme Court. 47 N.Y. Supp. p. 359, March 1944.
Zoning — Philanthropic Use
The use by a non-profit organiza- tion of a building as a dog shelter or pound "for the care, destruction or other disposition of stray dogs" was held not to be a philanthropic or eleemosynary use within the excep- tion in the zoning ordinance which authorized such uses in residential districts. Although the words have
not acquired a rigid meaning by judicial construction they are used in zoning ordinances only in con- nection with uses and institutions intended to promote the welfare of human beings.
Westchester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals v. Mengel et al. as Zoning Board of Appeals. New York Court of Appeals, 292 N.Y. p. 121, February 1944.
Zoning — Variance
This petitioner was granted in 1927 a variance which allowed him to use his premises for a public garage in a residential district con- trary to the terms of the zoning or- dinance. He now applies for a va- riance to use the same premises for a warehouse for the storage of gro- ceries and canned products and for the parking and storage of fifteen one-half-ton trucks to be operated from the premises in the distribu- tion of said products. Although recommended by the zoning board of adjustment, the board of com- missioners had refused the variance and the court found that the facts justified the refusal and that the board's refusal was neither illegal nor unreasonable.
Saraydar v. Board of Commissioners of Newark. New Jersey Supreme Court 36 Atl. p. 289, March 1944.
Zoning — Non-conforming Use —
Structural Alterations
This was an appeal from an in- junction decreed in the lower court against the arrest of Williams for a violation of the zoning ordinance. The act complained of was the use of his premises for a wholesale and retail bakery and the alterations necessary for that use, which con- sisted of the removal of a beaver- board partition and the cutting off of the top of another such partition.
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Planning and Civic Comment
The property was thirty-five years old and had always been used for business purposes, either as a retail grocery store or a bakery or as a wholesale candy and ice cream establishment.
The zoning ordinance which was passed in 1937 prohibited bakeries in the district occupied by the Williams property and on the sub- ject of non-conforming uses said that the legal use of buildings existing at the time of the passage of this ordinance may be continued "although such use does not con- form with the provisions hereof and such use may be extended through- out the building provided no struc- tural alterations are made." The use also may be changed to another non-conforming use of the same or more restricted classification. In upholding the lower court's decree the court expressly found that there was no violation of the ordinance and that the changes made in the premises were not structural.
City of Little Rock v. Williams. Arkansas Su- preme Court 177 So. W. 2nd p. 924, February 1944.
But the Kentucky Court of Ap- peals came to the opposite con- clusion on the following facts: The owners of the premises involved had occupied them since 1900 as a milk receiving, bottling and pasteurizing plant, although in a residential area where such uses were prohibited. The provision as to non-conforming uses was the same as in the Arkansas case. In 1942 a permit was secured to rebuild the roof of the premises, and it was found in the process that the wooden walls, which were in a bad state of repair, would not sup- port the roof, and consequently brick walls were put in without
seeking a permit. When ninety percent finished the building in- spector stopped the work, refused a permit, and on appeal to the board of zoning adjustment a request for variance was refused.
The two questions involved were : was the replacing of wooden walls by brick walls a structural altera- tion, and was the refusal of variance by the board of adjustment un- reasonable? There was an express finding that brick walls were not necessary for an adequate com- pliance with the requirements of the health department, and that brick walls would convert the structure into a new building and greatly increase its life. The court said, "The whole purpose of the zoning ordinance would be defeated if the owner is permitted to substitute permanent brick walls for rotted exterior wooden walls, as this would extend or prolong indefinitely the life of the non-conforming building." The court also pointed out that the hardship complained of by the owner of the premises was only created by him and found that the decision of the board of zoning ad- justment was not unreasonable and that there was no abuse of dis- cretion.
Selligman et al. v. Von AHmen Brothers, Inc. Kentucky Court of Appeals 179 So. W. 2nd p. 207, March 1944.
Outdoor Advertising Law — Con- stitutionality
The conservation law of New York provides that in the Adiron- dack Park area every outdoor ad- vertising sign must obtain a permit from the conservation commissioner. The Sterling Fox Farm, which main- tained its advertising signs on pri-
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Planning and Civic Comment
vate land, had refused to secure a permit and had been found guilty in the lower court of violating the law. In upholding the conviction the court said: "The question is not wholly aesthetic. It involves the health and welfare of the State as a whoTe. Each year physicians send thousands of our citizens out of our cities where factories, billboards and the like prevail, to seek the physical and mental rest and composure afforded by the natural surround-
ings of the Adirondacks, Catskills and other mountainous or rural areas. Rest cures are not effected by the contemplation of a row of ugly billboards. They may be brought about, however, by a so- journ in unspoiled natural sur- roundings. Surely the State has the right to preserve these natural conditions as a rest center for those who need them."
People v. Sterling. Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court 267 App. Div. p. 9, November 1943.
REDEDICATION TO CONSERVATION (Continued from page 26)
mary responsibility to preserve and administer these great areas in such manner that people can find the spiritual satisfaction that they seek when they come to the parks.
Louis Bromfield, noted author and conservationist, told the story of Malabar Farm, the 1000-acre tract of ruined land in Ohio which he and his family restored to health and productivity. When they took the farm, 70-80 percent of the water that fell on the land ran off, carrying the top soil with it. Now, 90 percent of the water that falls on the land is retained. The streams are clear and continuous, the springs are depend-
able, no soil is lost, and the farm is self-sufficient. This was accom- plished by holding water and soil in place on the watershed instead of futilely building dams at the bottom of streams. On a larger scale the same kind of problem must be solved in about the same way for the Mississippi Valley as a whole, Mr. Bromfield said. Perhaps TVA pro- vides the pattern to follow in the Mississippi Valley. Dams, then will not be needed at the bottom of the River, levies will become obso- lete, and the River will be clean and full of traffic.
Jackson Hole Decision Postponed
At the jour-day trial held in Sheridan, Wyoming, in August, of the case of the State of Wyoming versus Paul R. Francke, before the Federal District Court to test the legality of the Presidential Proclamation of March 1943 creating Jackson Hole National Monument, Judge Blake Kennedy took the case under advisement and promised a verdict in December. Ralph Boyd of the Department of Justice and Jackson E. Price, Chief Counsel for the Na- tional Park Service, defended the President's Proclamation as coming within the Lacey Act of 1906.
55
Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Bills
EDITOR'S NOTE — For many months hearings have been held on Housing proposals for the District of Columbia before the Burton Sub-Committee of the Senate. Certain points made and certain facts brought out indicate that everyone agreed on the de- sirability arid necessity for eliminating the slums of Washington, but only the NCHA and the Home Builders' Association offered specific programs and evidence of apparent ability to carry them out. According to a table of statistics presented by John I hlder, Executive Director, NCHA, 632 out of 2049 alley dwellings have been wholly eliminated from 1934-44, despite the Depression, war stoppage of appropriations and other ob- stacles. Less than half of these were eliminated by private enterprise. The only progress made in eliminating the larger inhabited alleys was by NCHA or incidental to the pro- grams of other public agencies. The Home Builders' Association alleged and supported with much evidence that they can build and manage low-rent housing cheaper than NCHA, that they can do the construction work and have the requisite financial backing, that if assisted by right of condemnation, they are prepared to do the whole job in ap- proximately six years after the land is made available to them.
On May 23d hearings opened before a sub-committee of the House District Committee under the chairmanship of Representative McGehee on a series of bills — S. 193Q-H.R. 4847 To provide for the replanning of blighted and other areas of the District of Colum- bia; S. 1923-H.R. 4819 To provide for the elimination of alley dwellings and the clear- ance and redevelopment of slum and other blighted areas of the District of Columbia. The statement which General Grant made before this Committee on these bills is an ex- cellent analysis of the pending issues and we therefore are glad to publish his statement in full.
Statement of GENERAL U. S. GRANT, 3rd, Chairman, National Capital Park and Planning Commission, before Judiciary Sub-Committee of the House Committee on the District of Columbia, Washington, D. C, May 26, 1944.
1. I appear here, on behalf of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission in favor of H.R. 4847, which was also introduced in the Senate by Senator Capper (S. 1930). Work on the preparation of this bill was started about a year ago because the Commission foresaw the need of such legislation in order to insure the eradication of the slums and blighted areas in the District of Columbia that are now costing the District so much in health, crime, fire, police and welfare services.
2. In the preparation of this bill the Commission has studied analo- gous legislation in the various states, the two bills introduced last year in the Senate, the very considerable experience and studies made abroad, and secured the services of Mr. Al- fred Bettman of Cincinnati, an authority of national repute in such
legislation, to assist in drafting and wording the legal parts of the bill. 3. The Commission approached the preparation of this bill with the conviction that private enterprise could do most of the job if assisted by a Government agency em- powered to assemble the blighted land and the slum buildings, and to supervise the carrying out of a well thought out and economic plan for the betterment of the area so ac- quired. It is believed that this bill, and only this one of those before you, will insure this being done so that the results will actually be in the public interest and for the public welfare. Indeed, this is the original bill to make it possible and advan- tageous for private enterprise to do this public service in such a way that the results will justify the use of the taxpayers' money and the right of
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Planning and Civic Comment
eminent domain.
4. In preparing this bill I con- sulted with various leaders in the real estate and real estate financing business here, and as far as practi- cable, without impairing the public interest and the primary purpose of the bill, their suggestions have been adopted and incorporated in it.
5. In fact, our hands have been somewhat forced by the introduction of H.R. 4819 in the House and an identical bill, S. 1923, by Senator Tydings in the Senate.
THE BUILDERS* REDEVELOPMENT
BILL (H.R. 4819-S. 1923) It is said that "imitation is the sincerest flattery," and for this reason I suppose the Commission should be very much flattered by this bill which imitates our bill so completely as far as it goes; but un- fortunately it leaves out entirely the control and other very important features of our bill, so that I will take a few minutes to point out briefly some of its most serious and egre- gious faults.
6. Personally as a resident of the district of Columbia, as well as in my official capacity, I feel that this bill is in its potentialities, the most dangerous piece of legislation I have known of being introduced with ref- erence to the District of Columbia in my 43 years' connection with it; and I am convinced that the Citi- zens' Associations and the Board of Trade would never have endorsed it if they had realized what harm can be done to them, to their property and to the District of Columbia as a whole if this bill is enacted.
7. To begin with, the title, if it is to represent fairly what the bill per- mits, should be changed to read "A
Bill to establish a new independent agency with discretionary power to condemn private property and resell it for speculative building at the cost of the taxpayers."
8. The setting up of such an autonomous agency with discretion to decide for itself what land shall be acquired, what loss the taxpayers can take in order to make rebuilding on it profitable to anyone who may make a bargain agreeable to the Agency, to fix the standards to be met, the number of dwelling units, their character and their rents, to de- cide for itself whether what it pro- poses is in accordance with the general and comprehensive plan for the city and its interests, to decide for itself after a public hearing it holds whether its plans are good or not, and finally to obligate the tax- payers of the District to pay what- ever amounts are necessary to meet the profit rents agreed to in some "star chamber" with the proposed developers (thus obligating the tax- payers to guarantee the profits and financing cost of the fortunate bar- gainer with it), is manifestly a very dangerous thing to do and entirely inconsistent with the present struc- ture of the municipal government which places administrative re- sponsibility in the Commissioners of the District and planning responsi- bility on the National Capital Park and Planning Commission as the technical adviser of the District Commissioners.
9. The Citizens Associations and other groups and individuals ap- pearing in favor of this bill can't possibly realize its very dangerous potentialities. I have known many of its proponents personally for a
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Planning and Civic Comment
period of years. I am sure that they don't intend at all what they now propose to make possible, and I am equally confident that their inten- tions are generally sincere to solve the slum and rehabilitation problem in the District of Columbia, with the perfectly human and natural de- sire to make such profits as they legitimately can in performing the job. But I submit that it is a matter of experience and sound legislative policy to insert in such legislation specific and explicit safeguards which will insure that even a Government agency shall carry out the intention of the legislation and shall not have opportunities or too much tempta- tion to apply the authority given it in a way either extravagant or cor- rupt.
When Mr. Henry assured you day before yesterday that operations under this bill would be self-liquidat- ing, he was doubtless deceiving him- self as well as you. There is no pro- vision whatsoever in the bill for put- ting in the Treasury anything ex- cept the marked down price of land sold by the slum clearance agency and the rents received by it for property retained in its possession.
In the cases submitted yesterday I think a very fine contribution to the whole subject was made by Mr. Carr. His contribution is valuable to us planners because it is really of advantage to get a practical esti- mate of costs and results from the practical men who have been doing this type of building. You will notice that there is an estimate cost for Logan Court, which is the particular square they were re- planning, in that submission of something like $290,000. They ex-
pected to pay the government $163,- 000. That is a write-down of $127,- 000. Now there is no provision for getting that back to the taxpayers excepting insofar as they estimated the increase of taxes that the re- developed property would pay the Government of the District; upon that basis in something like nineteen years, if their estimate is correct, the amount would be paid back, but since the taxes are fixed by the ap- praisers here, evidently the Slum Clearance Agency cannot control the amount.
I want to be frank with the Com- mittee and I will tell you in a few moments that our bill does not pro- vide any other repayment of the write-down, but I just want to make it clear that when you are told that the bill is "self-liquidating" as was stated, the gentleman who told you that did not realize what he himself had written, and that, I think, the job cannot be done by private enter- prise unless there is a write-down in in the cost of the property; and that applies to our bill as well as to H.R. 4819. There is, however, every ex- pectation, and I believe a sound ex- pectation, that this loss will be made up to the taxpayers in increased value of the tract, after its redevelop- ment; but this cannot be definitely promised. The difference between the price paid for the land and the the price at which it is sold, which is entirely within the discretion of the agency, is not required to be repaid except insofar as the project will in- crease assessable values and thereby result in an increase of taxes — an amount out of control of the land agency and incalculable at this time.
Furthermore, there is not pro-
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Planning and Civic Comment
vision for repaying the amount paid to indigent families by the Welfare Department so that they can pay the full rent charged by the private owner or lessor. The total of this amount will be most difficult to de- termine because it will be paid in small amounts to a large of number of families by various welfare or- ganizations. At the present time there are said to be about 4300 families on relief. During the great depression in the 30's there were 40,000 families, more or less. If the rent that must be charged by the private builder to whom the land has been sold or leased should exceed that which could be eco- nomically charged by the NCHA in public housing by $5 to $10 a month, which is the case now in many instances, the relief bill for rents would manifestly be $400,000 a month or about six times the total annual appropriation for relief at the present time.
THE PLANNING COMMISSION'S RE- DEVELOPMENT BILL (H.R. 4847- S. 1930)
10. The bill proposed by this Commission, namely H.R. 4847, differs essentially from H.R. 4819, in that it requires a procedure that we believe insures the controls necessary to prevent the abuses that are possible under H.R. 4819.
11. The candor due your Com- mittee impels me to state, in order to avoid any possibility of misunder- standing, that our bill also provides for a write-down in the value of the land designated for low-cost housing or other inferior use. On the other hand, the planning of the redevelop- ment project is initiated by the
Planning Commission and subject to action by the District Commis- sioners after a public hearing held by them, so that the established author- ities of the city will have an op- portunity to plan the redevelopment as far as practicable in such a way as to create increased values wherever possible in order to compensate for the capital losses in the low-priced developments. Moreover, the same established authorities will be es- pecially interested as well as ex- plicitly enjoined by the bill, to pro- vide shelter for any excess popula- tion that must be moved out of an area before their houses are torn down about their ears.
12. The Commission's bill pro- vides also that priority of considera- tion be given to private enterprise to effect any reconstruction of hous- ing called for by the plan so care- fully worked out by the Planning Commission and approved by the District Commissioners after a pub- lic hearing. However, it also pro- vides that the established NCHA or any other public housing agency established by Congress may be as- signed the task of doing any of this construction work which private enterprise cannot undertake with- out exorbitant subsidy. In other words, while the H. R. 4819 permits no bidders except private enterprise and therefore the land agency will necessarily be tempted to write down the cost of the land and write up the rents so as to make the great- est number of sales or leases, always remembering that the rents are go- ing to be made up by the Welfare Department at the cost of the tax- payers in another appropriation for which the Agency has no responsi-
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Planning and Civic Comment
bility; the bill presented by our Commission leaves the public agency and what it can do for com- parison with the proposals of any private builders wanting to buy in. It is difficult to see why the pri- vate builders should be afraid of such a comparison and competition if they themselves have any confi- dence in the rather extreme claims they have been making that their costs for construction and manage- ment are so much lower than those of NCHA. In connection with these claims, it must be remembered that the accounts of the NCHA are audited by the General Accounting Office, are public, and presumably correct, whereas the estimates of the builders are only estimates and are based on their private accounts, doubtless audited by certified ac- countants but the details of which are unknown to us.
13. The Commission feels that this bill, primarily intended to solve the slum clearance and blighted area redevelopment problems of the District of Columbia with its pecu- liar municipal set up directly under Congress, is not the place to estab- lish or alter the Government's national policy on the subject of public housing, which is the subject of other legislation. It is merely proposed that the inhabitants of the District of Columbia in solving its slum clearance and blighted area problems, should not be denied the
same help that the Federal Govern- ment gives to other cities, as long as it has been determined that the ul- timate cost to the taxpayers will be less than if it is done by private enterprise.
NOTE 1. Because the bill could not properly be recommended by the Commission without clearance through the Bureau of the Budget, it was not practicable to have it introduced in time for it to be con- sidered generally by the various Citizens Associations, the Civic Associations and such bodies as the Board of Trade.
I might interpolate here that the bill has since been introduced (S. 1930 and H.R. 4847), with permis- sion of the Bureau of the Budget to have it introduced provided I say that the Bureau has not finally passed on it. In other words, it has not the Bureau's approval yet be- cause of certain delays — replies from some Government agencies pre- sumably— but the bill carries out one of the duties the Bureau re- cently recommended in its report on the Planning Commission. So I am sure that the spirit of the measure is in accord with Bureau's ideas of the proper policy; but I want to make it clear that it has not got the formal approval of the Bureau. I would also like to emphasize again that it has the formal approval of the Dis- trict Commissioners.
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Memorandum on Postwar Housing
A Memorandum on Postwar Hous- ing (124 pp.), prepared under the direction of R. J. Thomas, Inter- national President of theUAW-CIO, Chairman of the National CIO Housing Committee and Chairman o' the UAW-CIO Postwar Planning Committee, is being distributed by the Education Department of the United Automobile Workers of the CIO, 1324 Maccabees Building, Detroit 2, Michigan. This is an ex- cellent document. It is not only a plea for a broad housing program, with wide opportunities for housing produced by private enterprise, supplemented by a sound program for public housing, but it presents discussion of most of the elements involved in the rebuilding of cities and the provision of decent housing for all of the population. The causes of the existing blights and maladjustments are outlined.
The recommendations would lead to a well-conceived program for improvement of living conditions in our cities based upon well-planned neighborhoods. To planners this may seem an old story, but it is an encouraging sign when an organiza- tion of users of homes adopts recom- mendations in line with the trend of thought of the professional plan- ning groups.
The recommendations include the im- mediate creation of Metropolitan Regional Planning Agencies as a basis for urban development and zonihg; the adoption by all city governments of active constructive improvement policies and programs as well as active restrictive measures for the protection, stabilization and improvement of all residential neighborhoods not so far blighted that they must be cleared; sub-
stantial reduction in home-building mort- gage interest rates consistent with physical and economic soundness of housing and consistent with the public benefits to be derived from adequately housing families in the lower income groups, guiding urban decentralization into sound community patterns, and providing a way to urban slum clearance and redevelopment pro- grams; longer periods of mortgage amor- tization for housing developed in planned communities; provision for mortgage rules to safeguard the equities of the home buyers; establishing machinery to ensure the responsibilities of house builders for the soundness of their products; public financial assistance in the assembly and acquisition of suitable land, f6r prelim- inary development and development of site improvements and provision of com- munity facilities.
The preservation o" neighbor- hoods free from undue depreciation is made one of the cardinal points dependent upon better understand- ing of the factors involved. The need for continuous collaborative re- lations between citizens and govern- mental and civic agencies is recog- nized. The more rigid enforcement of existing city and state ordinances and laws designed for the protection of residence neighborhoods is urged together with the strengthening of such legislation. The rearrangement of through highways and the de- velopment of limited access high- ways so as to by-pass residential areas and the creation of open belts of land to act as buffers between urban developments have long been advocated by planners and in some cases actually put into effect.
For slum eradication it is urged that there be a large scale program of homebuilding in complete, planned communities on inexpensive land to rehouse families now living
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Planning and Civic Comment
in urban slum areas, with money at lower rates of interest for housing built by private enterprise and the construction of subsidized rental housing by public housing agencies to meet the requirements of all groups whose needs are not met by private operation.
Under the title "Public Equity in Urban Land" the recommenda- tions include public control of the use of all urban land through the development and adoption of met- ropolitan regional master plans, public acquisition of urban slum land after effective steps have been taken to acquire such land at a cost compatible with the use for which such land is acquired; public ac- quisition of open, urban and sub- urban land essential to sound, long range development programs for the clearance and redevelopment of urban slums and the control of the decentralization of our cities; public acquisition of all rural land to be developed as urban communities in connection with new war pro- duction plants constructed in rural areas where such plants are to be used in the postwar period ; retention in public ownership of all land pub- licly acquired for urban development and urban slum clearance and re- development programs, with the one exception of such land as is to be used for single land double residential purposes. All other publicly ac- quired land that is to be used by private operation for commercial and industrial purposes should be de- veloped on a long period lease basist in order to ensure the elimination, of speculation and the accrual to the public of all benefits resulting from the commercially developed areas
to help counterbalance the expendi- tures of public funds on the entire program. Public ownership of all land acquired through tax delin- quency is advocated until the best use of such land can be determined in accordance with the master plan.
For the housing that it is nec- essary to subsidize, the report recommends public agencies, with the system of graded rents, extended and perfected, a practice long ad- vocated by the Civic Association, based on the experience in the Dis- trict of Columbia. The report stresses the order of procedure in that living facilities be first pro- vided in modest dwelling units on inexpensive land in outlying areas developed in complete neighborhood units for those employed in the vicinity. The redevelopment of slum areas is advocated only when the cost of acquiring the land has been sufficiently deflated to make ac- quisition good business. Allotment gardens are suggested for those who will use them.
The report recommends the im- mediate adoption and development by the Federal Government of a socially and economically sound policy and program for the orderly disposition in the postwar period of publicly constructed war housing facilities.
For those who have long advo- cated design control and have seen it work out on a limited scale in the Shipstead areas in Washington, it is refreshing to note that the report advocates machinery for the public control of visible design for all building construction, though per- haps a bias in favor of so-called modernistic design may be seen in
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Planning and Civic Comment
the bald statement that "slavish imitation of traditional forms be discouraged." No one will take issue with the desire to make im- aginative use of modern techniquies in planning and construction.
With so much to praise in the historic summaries, current reason- ing, high order of thinking, and broad program of recommendations, it may seem captious to criticize the report in any respect. Naturally, there will be those who, while ad- mitting that the subsidized public housing projects must be on pub- licly owned land, will question the advisability of holding other lands acquired for redevelopment in per- manent public ownership. It is true that a recommendation to this effect was included in the FHA bulletin on Urban Redevelopment and the plan is advocated by many students of
planning, but there are still those who see advantages in private ownership. It is even possible that maximum income from rentals, u nless the property is very well managed, might not equal what could be collected from taxes.
That leaves but one outright criticism. The constant arraign- ment of private enterprise is no doubt borne out by the practices of some, but could hardly apply to all, and, in view of the many mistakes and extravagances in the public housing field, it might have been the better part of wisdom to have preserved in this respect the fine objective spirit which pervades most of the report. Let us then forget these lapses and hail the report as distinctly encouraging for better planning and better living in this American land of opportunity.
Urban Redevelopment in California
Town Hall, in Los Angeles, through its Regional Planning and Development Section, of which Reginald D. Johnson is Chairman, with the aid of a special grant from the Haynes Foundation, has pre- pared an excellent report on "The Need for Urban Redevelopment Legislation in California." The Greer-Hansen Plan presented by the National Planning Association, the Urban Land Institute Plan and the proposal of the Federal Housing Administration (all heretofore out- lined in PLANNING AND Civic COM- MENT and compared in the October, 1942 issue by Charles Stewart, then Director of the Urban Land In- stitute) are analyzed. The Thomas
and Wagner bills are discussed and compared; but no prediction is made concerning the future action of Congress.
An historical outline of state legislation on urban redevelopment covers the pioneer measure of the State of New York and its amend- ments together with legislation in eight other States. A section is devoted to the expanded powers of eminent domain in their constitu- tional aspects.
All of this information is focused on the situation in California where a Limited-dividends Housing Cor- poration Act was adopted in 1933, together with a community Land Chest Act meant to apply to local
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Planning and Civic Comment
areas and small cities. It is recorded that so far these two pieces of legislation have proved sterile. In 1943 the State Legislature adopted a Local Area Rehabilitation Act but this was pocket-vetoed by the Governor and is admitted to have had obvious deficiencies.
The Report then discusses the basic provisions which a California Urban Development law should in- clude and then presents the follow- ing recommendations:
1. Eminent Domain. The right to ac- quire property for urban redevelopment through condemnation proceedings should be granted to the community only and not to private redevelopment agencies.
2. Land Acquisition Agency. For the assembling and disposing of property in- volved in urban redevelopment projects, the local government should be required to designate an existing public agency or create a new one.
3. Disposal of Land. The local govern- ment should be permitted to convey land to the redevelopment agency by sale or lease.
4. Comprehensive General Plan. Before any local government may participate in a redevelopment program, it should be required to have a planning commission and a comprehensive general plan drawn up and approved by this body. A precise project plan in conformity with the com- prehensive plan and its approval by the planning commission and the local legis- lative body should be required before any redevelopment project is approved.
5. Intergovernmental Cooperation. Where two or more local governments share an area in need of rehabilitation they should be able to participate jointly either through contractual arrangements or by the dele- gation of sole responsibility to one of the communities.
6. Redevelopment Agencies. Any private individual, company or corporation should be permitted to engage in urban redevelop- ment and to acquire property from the local government for this purpose, and any public agency authorized by Califor- nia law should be permitted to acquire property from the local government for the purposes for which it was created.
7. Public Controls. To insure that ur- ban redevelopment shall operate in the
public interest, reasonable public controls of private operation are necessary, and, as a part of the deed of sale or lease agree- ment, a contract should be drawn between the local government and the redevelop- ment agency which includes the terms of the redevelopment plan and all other pertinent matters.
8. Finance of Redevelopment. For the acquisition of blighted land, local govern- ments which otherwise conform to the requirements of the proposed legislation should be permitted to receive Federal assistance or credit under the terms of any Federal urban redevelopment legis- lation which may be passed, and they should also be permitted to make use of their own financial resources for the pur- pose of urban redevelopment.
9. Acquisition of Land for Future Re- development. Communities should be per- mitted to acquire land for redevelopment without a prior commitment from a re- development agency for redevelopment of the land.
10. Tax abatement. Tax abatement for redevelopment companies should not be a part of the initial urban redevelopment legislative program.
11. Limitation of Dividends. Urban re- development should not be limited to agencies which accept a restriction upon the earnings or dividends which may be derived from redevelopment projects.
12. Re-bousing of Displaced Tenants. Urban redevelopment legislation in Cali- fornia should not contain an unqualified requirement that the redevelopment agency itself provide or assure re-housing for displaced tenants.
13. Racial Discrimination. Racial dis- crimination should not be an issue in drafting urban redevelopment legislation for California.
The Legislative Council in Sac- ramento is now drafting proposed legislation along the lines of these recommendations. In essential re- spects the measure should be some- what similar to S 1930 already in- troduced into the Congress of the U. S. by Senator Capper (H. R. 4847) to apply to the District of Columbia.
Copies of the Report may be se- cured from Town Hall, Los Angeles.
64
Recent Publications
Compiled by KATHERINE McNAM ARA, Librarian of the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
AMERICAN CITY MAGAZINE CORPORATION. Municipal index and atlas; 19th annual ed., 1944. New York, The Corporation, 1944. 663 pages. IIIus., maps, diagrs., cross sections, tables. Price $5.00.
AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ASSOCIA- TION. American planning and civic an- nual; a record of recent civic advance in the fields of planning, parks, housing, neighborhood improvement and conser- vation of national resources, including the addresses delivered at the Citizens Conference on Planning, held at Omaha, Nebraska, on June 14, 15, 16, 1943. Edited by Harlean James. Washington, The Association, 1943. 195 pages. IIIus., plans. Price $3.00 (free to members).
BARUCH, BERNARD M., and JOHN M. HAN- COCK. Report on war and post-war ad- justment policies, February 15, 1944. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 108 pages.
BLACK, RUSSELL VAN NEST. Planning for the small American city; an outline of principles and procedure especially ap-
Elicable to the city of fifty thousand or :ss, by Russell Van Nest Black, in col- laboration with Mary Hedges Black; rev. ed. Chicago, III., Public Administra- tion Service, 1944. 86 pages. IIIus., plans, tables, charts. (Publication no. 87.) Price $1.00.
CALIFORNIA HOUSING AND PLANNING ASSOCIATION. A chart for changing cities. [San Francisco], The Association, [1944]. 20 pages. Plans.
CHICAGO, ILL. PLAN COMMISSION. Land use in Chicago, volume two of the report of the Chicago land use survey, directed by the City Plan Commission and con- ducted by the Work Projects Adminis- tration. A project sponsored by the city of Chicago, Edward J. Kelly, mayor. Chicago, The Commission, [1943]. 479 pages. Lithoprinted. IIIus. on end pa- pers, maps (part colored), charts. Price $4.00.
. Master plan of residential land
use of Chicago. Chicago, The Com- mission, 1943. 134 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, tables, charts. Price $3.00.
Co LEAN, MILES L. American housing: problems and prospects. The factual find- ings, by Miles L. Colean; The program, by the Housing Committee [of the Twentieth Century Fund]. New York, The Twentieth Century Fund, 1944. 466
pages. Maps, Pri<
. plans, tables, charts, ice $3.00.
DE LONGE, MERRILL E. Modern airfield planning and concealment. New York, Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1943. 167 pages. IIIus., plans, diagrs., cross sections, tables. Price $4.00.
GRAHAM, EDWARD H. Natural principles of land use. New York Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1944. 274 pages. IIIus., diagrs., cross sections, tables, charts. Price $3.50.
HANSEN, ALVIN H., and HARVEY S. PER- LOFF. State and local finance in the national economy. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1944. 310 pages. Map, tables, charts. Price $3.75.
HUXLEY, JULIAN. TVA: adventure in. planning; with a foreword by the Hon- ourable John G. Winant . . . and notes on the illustrations by Gordon and Flora Stephenson. Cheam, Surrey, The Archi- tectural Press, 1943. 142 pages. IIIus., maps, tables, charts. Price 8s 6d.
INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMO- BILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO), pub. Memorandum on postwar urban housing. Detroit, Mich., The Union, 1944. 121 pages. Price 25 cents.
LOHMANN, KARL B. Planning opportuni- ties for towns in Illinois. Urbana, Uni- versity of Illinois, 1944. 39 pages. IIIus,. plans, diagrs. (University of Illinois Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 40.)
LUDLOW, WILLIAM H. Population densi- ties for New York City; a technical study of urban population densities in relation to city planning, prepared under the direction of Henry S. Churchill. New York, Citizens' Housing Council of New York, May 1944. 102 pages. Mimeo- graphed. Tables. Price $1.00 (50 cents to members).
McGoLDRiCK, JOSEPH D., and OTHERS. Building regulation in New York City; a study in administrative law and pro- cedure, by Joseph D. McGoIdrick, Sey- mour Graubard, Raymond J. Horowitz. New York, The Commonwealth Fund, 1944. 743 pages. Tables, chart (folded). Price $4.50.
MOCK, ELIZABETH, ed. Built in USA, 1932-1944. Foreword by Philip L. Goodwin. New York, The Museum of
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Planning and Civic Comment
Modern Art, 1944. 127 pages. IIIus., plans. Price $3.00.
THE MUNICIPAL YEAR BOOK, 1944, the authoritative resume of activities and statistical data of American cities. Edi- tors: Clarence E. Ridley, Orin F. Nolt- ing. Chicago, The International City Managers' Association, 1944. 646 pages. Maps, tables, charts. Price $8.50.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING OFFI- CIALS. Housing for the United States after the war. Chicago, The Association, May 1944. 65 pages. (Publication no. N193.) Price 50 cents.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POSTWAR HOUSING, CHICAGO, ILL., 1944. Pro- ceedings of the National Conference on Postwar Housing, Chicago, March 8-9- 10, 1944. New York, National Commit- tee on Housing, Inc., 1944. 229 pages. Tables, chart. Price $1.75 ($1.50 to members).
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE PARKS. 1943 yearbook: park and recreation progress, published as a public service by the National Conference on State Parks. Washington, The Conference, 1944. 48 pages. IIIus., tables. Price $1.00.
NEW YORK, N. Y. BOARD OF ESTIMATE, and OTHERS. NYC postwar program, by Board of Estimate, City Council, City Planning Commission. New York, The authors, May 1, 1944. 61 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, cross sections, tables, charts. Price 50 cents.
Exhibit held at 500 Park Avenue.
PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEERS' YEARBOOK, 1944, including the proceedings of the 1943 Public Works Congress held at Chicago, Illinois, October 24-27, 1943. Chicago, American Public Works Asso- ciation, 1944. 320 pages. IIIus., diagrs., tables. Price $3.75.
PUERTO Rico. PLANNING, URBANIZING, AND ZONING BOARD. A development plan for Puerto Rico. Published by the Office of Information for Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing, and Zoning Board, Santurce, Puerto
Rico. San Juan, Insular Procurement Office, Printing Division, Jan. 1944. 66 pages. Maps, tables, charts. (Technical Paper no. 1.) Price 25 cents.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. LONDON REGIONAL RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE. Greater London: towards a master plan; the second interim report. London, The Institute, May 1943. 52 pages. Maps, plans, cross sections.
TACOMA, WASH. MAYOR'S RESEARCH COMMITTEE ON URBAN PROBLEMS. Ta- coma, the city we build. Tacoma, pub- lished under the auspices of the Tacoma City Council with the cooperation of Belle Reeves, Secretary of State, 1944. 147 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, plans, diagrs., tables, charts.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND. Post- war planning in the United States; an organization directory, 3. New York, The Fund, 1944. 134 pages. Price $1.00.
THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS. City problems of 1943-1944, the annual proceedings of the United States Conference of Mayors, Chicago, Illinois, January 19-21, 1944. Edited by Harry R. Betters. Washington, The Conference, 1944. 216 pages. Price $3.00.
VOILICH, FRANCIS. Cities of Latin Amer- ica: housing and planning to the south. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corpor- ation, 1944. 241 pages. IIIus., maps (part on end papers), plans. Price $3.50.
WATSON, J. PATON, and PATRICK ABER- CROMBIE. A plan for Plymouth; the re- port prepared for the City Council; with appendices on agriculture and soil, by Dudley Stamp and G. W. Robinson. Introduction by the Right Hon. The Viscount Astor. With a foreword by the Hon. John G. Winant. Plymouth, Eng., Underhill, (Plymouth), Ltd., 1943. 147 pages. IIIus., maps (part colored and part folded), plans (part colored and part folded), diagrs., cross sections (folded), tables (part folded), charts. Price 10s 6d.
As we go to press, word has come of three deaths of those closely associated with National Parks. Mrs. Stephen Tyng Mather, widow oj the first Director oj the National Park Service, died at her home in Darien, Connecticut, in August. George B. Dorr, Jor many years Superintendent oj Acadia National Park, and Ernest A. Davidson, Landscape Architect of Region 4, who died this summer, have left permanent legacies to the cause of National Parks in the service they rendered over a long period of years.
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OCTOBER 1944 |
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FOURTH QUARTER™OCTOBER~DECEMBER
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
ed Quarterly
te Recreation
ic Association
fy Planning; hand and Water Uses; ]'
; National, State and Local Parks, :;
nent which will conserve and develop II
the American people. '\
EDITORIAL BOARD
G EDITORS
1^1 THOMAS H, MACDONALD
ROBERTS MANN j. HORACE McFARLAND MENRY T, MC!NTOSH
IHHH KATHERINE McNAMARA
IH HAROLD MERRILL
HH MARVIN C. NICHOT.S
JOHN NOLEN, JR.
F. A. PlTKIN
^H HUGH R. POMEROY
|H^H ISABELLE F, STORY
I... DEMING TILTON BEN* II. THOMPSON RLIHY TOM WALLACE
CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR DORA A. PADGETT
$3.00 a Year
Entered as set:ond«dass matter ai the Post Office at Washington, D. C.f under ;e Act of M;:reh -1. 1879. Additi-r:d entry at Harrisburg, Pa.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5 D. C
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa,
Planning and Civic Comment
VoL 10 October, 1944 No. 4
Private Jobs or Public Jobs ?
A message from PAUL G. HOFFMAN, Chairman, Committee for Economic Development
One of the most confusing and persistent issues that I encounter in my association with postwar planning groups is the pervading assumption that either private enterprise must furnish our needed postwar jobs or the government will supply them.
This "either-or" is not a clear-cut choice or issue. Both government (Federal, state, and local) and private enterprise have a planning job to do and their efforts can very properly complement rather than compete with one another.
In the short article which follows I would like to discuss some of the relationships of government planning for postwar employment to planning by private employers. It is my own belief that if we are truly to capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us and to meet squarely the responsi- bilities they pose, we must have a clearer under- standing of what postwar goals we want to plan toward and how business and government can cooperate in reaching them.
In all our planning for a sound and prosperous economic future, I believe we should ask ourselves these basic and searching questions:
What kind of jobs do Americans want after the war?
And how do such jobs get born?
I know of no postwar question which is not in some way related to these two.
Where Will Our Postwar Jobs Come From?
By PAUL G. HOFFMAN, Chairman Committee for Economic Development
Is high-level postwar employment a question of: "Private jobs versus Government jobs; or is it a matter of private jobs and Government jobs?"
The offhand answer seems simple, but apparently it is not. The con- fusion seems to have arisen from the loose impression that "a job is a job" and that postwar employment is simply a matter of either ... or.
Let's look first at the facts, and then at the possibilities. Before the war there were approximately 1 76,000 * 'units' ' of government in the United States — Federal, state, and local. About 3,200,000 persons were employed in the regular activities of these government units.
After the war there may be as many as 4,000,000 persons needed to discharge the regular functions of government in these various units, which would mean 800,000 more useful postwar government jobs.
Also, before the war, there were an additional 3,000,000 persons in "made" government jobs — on WPA, NYA, CCC, including 97,000 on Federal public works projects. Al- together, then, there were around 6,200,000 people on regular and "made" government payrolls in 1940. This means that at least 2,200,000 new useful government jobs will have to be planned for if we are to have as many people "work- ing for the government" as we had before our economy was converted to war.
At this point we come to one of the centers of confusion about gov- ernment jobs versus private jobs. The question is "How many people will the government employ?"
Clearly, the various governing units will employ enough people to discharge the many duties which governments normally perform. These needs presumably would be covered by the 4,000,000 regular postwar government jobs antici- pated.
But, in addition, it is obvious that many additional workers will be needed to rebuild our streets and our highways, to build our airports, to extend our conservation of national resources, and to provide the many new and expanded public facilities needed by a busy and prosperous postwar nation. These we might call needed public works jobs.
The best estimates which I can obtain indicate that such public works already planned by all types of government will not provide more than 2,000,000such jobs at the most.
This would suggest that the num- ber of postwar government jobs, both of a routine nature and in pub- lic works, which we can now expect will be about 6,000,000, or slightly fewer people than we had "working for the government" in 1940.
My personal reaction to this out- look is that, in terms of public works, I do not think that certain units of government have planned nearly as adequately as they should for post-
Planning and Civic Comment
war public works. This picture is very spotty. In some areas and in specific communities a comprehen- sive program has been mapped out and actually blueprinted in detail. But in far too many localities needed postwar construction is still in the word-sketch stage and far from ready to supply jobs or to get the projects built. Actually, it would seem only a matter of foresight to have public works planning done and blueprinted ahead rather than behind immediate construction needs.
But the point to be made here is that at present there are not enough government jobs anticipated, either in routine functions or in planned public works, to provide employ- ment for as many people as were working for the government in 1940.
Against this fact we should exam- ine another vital postwar planning fact — that we will need 7 to 10 mil- lion new jobs over and above the jobs we had in 1940, if we are to have a high-level prosperous postwar econ- omy. And, if presently planned government employment is not ex- pected to reach even its pre-war levels, it seems clear that we must look largely to private endeavor for these 7 to 10 million new jobs. Basic- ally, this is less a question of where should these new postwar jobs come from than it is of where can they come from.
Very early in our work in the Committee for Economic Develop- ment, we concluded that even as- suming an expansive public works program to rehabilitate and add to the assets of the Nation as a whole, private employers must plan boldly and on a sufficiently expanded scale to provide the great bulk of those 7
to 10 million jobs. Moreover, we be- lieved that the way to do that kind of planning was not through one big "master plan, " but through 2,000,000 separate plans, one by and for each of the business employers who are the job-makers in our free enterprise economy.
In order to reach these two million employers and to stimulate them to aim their collective planning sights not only toward reconversion, but on higher goals of expansion of 30 to 45 percent over 1940, we established C.E.D.'s "Field Development" Di- vision. We called this our "grass roots" approach. It began in 1942 with three pioneer community com- mittees for economic development in Reading, Pa., Wheeling, W. Va., and Peoria, III. In these towns we hoped to work out, by trial and error, meth- ods of encouraging local business employers to make the sort of bold smart postwar plans, for themselves or individual enterprisers, which added together nationally would provide 7 to 10 million new peace- time jobs.
Now, viewed with the perspective of two years of work, it is evident that in spite of our hopes, we under- estimated one of America's chief planning assets — namely, the com- munity leadership and initiative of her enterprising citizens acting in their own enlightened self-interest. As soon as the grass-roots self-help concepts and techniques of postwar planning worked out in these trial towns could be written up into C.E.D. handbooks, the C.E.D. pro- gram began to spread. Today, two years later, there are more than 2100 community C.E.D. committees spread throughout the United States
Planning and Civic Comment
from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, inclusive.
These local committees are not testimonials to the good "selling job" done by the C.E.D. Field Develop- ment Division. They are monu- ments to the fact that progressive businessmen in one community after the other have recognized that post- war planning of the type recom- mended by the C.E.D. was some- thing which they wanted, not only for their own businesses, but for all of the enterprisers in their com- munity.
This element of local initiative is further emphasized by the fact that each community C.E.D. is com- pletely autonomous. Although for practical purposes most new com- mittees follow the suggested organi- zational patterns which have been worked out by experience in other C.E.D. communities, each new com- mittee rapidly takes on planning characteristics of its own.
New committees are urged to be- gin their operations with a series of surveys to "get the facts/* These consist of surveys of: (1) Employ- ment in 1940; (2) Current wartime employment; and (3) Employment presently planned by local employ- ers for the first full peacetime year. Once these surveys have been made, the local committee is in a much bet- ter position to determine how much and what kind of additional plan- ning may be necessary to insure a high level of postwar employment for returning veterans, war workers, and others who will be seeking future employment in that town.
Such a factual approach has pro- duced some extraordinary and real- istic planning programs. One town,
such as Worcester, Mass., may de- cide that it wants to concentrate its plans around helping new businesses get born and small businesses grow larger. To do this, Worcester has established an Industrial Bureau which will provide expert technical assistance to its new and small busi- nessmen, ranging all the way from experts in cost accounting to special- ists in foreign trade.
Other communities may decide that a prosperous future can best be insured by helping their new war- time industrial plants convert to permanent peacetime operations. As an example, the Kansas City C.E.D. is seeking to raise a half-million dol- lars with which to put their planning program on a ten-year long-term basis with the ultimate objective of translating Kansas City's pre-war agriculture-based economy into a well-balanced one, depending on both agriculture and industry.
Still other communities are an- choring their plans to improvements in commercial activities. Small trad- ing centers such as Franklin Square, L. I., Slayton, Minn., and some twenty towns in Utah are making bold plans to remodel every store in each community so that when com- pleted the entire town will constitute a model shopping center, not only in uniform exterior appearance, but with the latest in interior as well as lay-out, merchandising facilities, air conditioning, etc.
This same type of aggressive plan- ning is being stimulated by the local C.E.D.'s in predominantly agricul- tural communities. In South Da- kota alone, with only six towns of over 10,000 population, there are 181 community C.E.D. committees
Planning and Civic Comment
whose programs are geared to im- proving postwar prosperity and em- ployment, both of which are rooted in the economic well-being of their surrounding farms.
Even though we in C.E.D. did not foresee the tremendous response to our grass-roots approach in the form of individual plans for increased em- ployment, we did recognize that there was a "second front" on which the over-all job of postwar planning must be tackled. Even if every indi- vidual businessman in the United States, down to the smallest, were to have bold smart plans ready for V-Day, we could still fail to achieve a high-level prosperous postwar economy. No individual business plan is self-sufficient. It must de- pend for its ultimate success on a number of factors which are beyond the control of individuals and which make up what we call the "economic climate." The control of this broad climate is the "second front" of post- war planning. It involves decision and actions governing such national policies as taxation; the demobiliza- tion of wartime controls over pro- duction, distribution, and prices; regulation and availability of post- war credit and capital; broad policies of international trade; and special regulations and protection and aids for small business.
The C.E.D. has urged individual businessmen to go ahead and do their postwar planning on the assumption that these broad problems would be tackled with equal realism by gov- ernmental agencies — Federal, state, and local — who exercise control over them. However, C.E.D. did not, by such urging, "pass the buck," or deny any responsibility on the part
of businessmen for tackling these broader problems. For two years the C.E.D. Research Division, made up of a Research Committee of busi- nessmen and a Research Advisory Board of Economists and social scientists, has had under way an in- tensive program of study of such problems. At present more than a dozen major C.E.D. Research Proj- ects are progressing, under which eminently qualified experts in each field are studying specific national economic problems certain to affect the success or failure of all postwar planning. These C.E.D. experts are seeking new facts for the guidance of national policy with the sole instruc- tion that their research "must be from the point of view of the people as a whole and not from that of any special political or economic groups." Two C.E.D. Research Projects have been completed and published. These are:
1. "Production, Jobs and Taxes," by Dr. Harold M. Groves, Professor of Economics, University of Wis- consin— a study of the Federal tax structure from the point of view of the effect of specific tax policies on the creation of jobs. The Re- port includes a number of com- prehensive suggestions on post- war tax policy.
2. "The Liquidation of War Produc- tion," by Dr. A. D. H. Kaplan, on leave from the University of Den- ver— including an analysis of the problems of cancellation of war contracts, disposal of government- owned plants, and disposal of government-owned surplusses.
In addition to these Reports, which represent the findings of their
Planning and Civic Comment
individual authors, the Research Committee issues Statements on Na- tional Policy setting forth C.E.D.'s own recommendations for action in tackling these same broad national problems being studied by the ex- perts. In this manner C.E.D., as an organization of businessmen, seeks to make its contribution to this "second front" of postwar planning. It would be equally tragic if our efforts to achieve a prosperous post- war economy fell short, either be- cause private enterprise had failed to plan for individual jobs or because government had failed to provide a favorable climate for jobs.
There is one special aspect of this "economic climate" which is most important, and that is its effect on the birth and growth of new busi- nesses. More than a million small businesses have ceased to exist since Pearl Harbor, and scarcely half that many new ones have been started. After the war this trend must be quickly reversed if our economy is to prosper. If there is any basic tradi- tion of American enterprise, it is the right and freedom to start a business of one's own and to make it grow through hard work and private initiative.
This tradition has been strength- ened during the war. At least a mil- lion servicemen, and possibly an even greater number of war workers, hope to start small businesses after the war. These intentions, backed up by new skills, personal savings, and forward-looking initiative are perhaps our greatest postwar plan- ning assets. They represent the seed bed of new enterprise, which will not only provide jobs for their owners but for the employees which
they will need to grow. If a million such new small businesses are born in the immediate postwar period, which is a very reasonable expecta- tion, they could provide at least a third of the 7 to 10 million new jobs we will need to achieve a high-level prosperous economy.
It should be a definite part of the postwar plans of established busi- ness— of banks, of trade associa- tions, of business leaders in every community — to help these new- comers get started. Hundreds of local C.E.D. groups have separate sub-committees on the Special Prob- lems of Small Business. Local Chambers of Commerce and other community organizations of busi- nessmen have undertaken similar special efforts to help new businesses get born and small ones grow larger after the war.
But, here again, the best efforts of these hopeful new enterprisers may fail if their growth is stunted by a negative climate. And climate in this case means not only the implica- tions of national regulations, such as taxes, but state and local business controls which have become out- moded and no longer serve any use- ful purpose. Technologically, we have made one tremendous jump forward as a result of our combined war effort. Business must take this jump into account in its postwar planning, and government must like- wise recognize that new ground rules are needed to meet the new situation.
Above all, we need to do our plan- ning as individuals, as businessmen, as members of government, and as citizens in a spirit of cooperation. In a free enterprise system functioning in a democracy there can be no
Planning and Civic Comment
monopolies on planning. The em- phasis should be on applyingourwar- stimulated initiative to the prob- lems of planning a better peace-time world, when these problems arise.
We have before us the oppor- tunity, and at the same time the
sobering responsibility, to show our- selves and the world that a free enterprise system can, in peacetime as in war, prove itself the best ser- vant of the common good, and that the limits of its progress are nowhere yet in sight.
EDITORIALS
The Twin Bridge Controversy in Washington
A sharp controversy has been pre- cipitated by the introduction into Congress of bills (S. 2183— H. R. 5511) to authorize the construction of two four-lane bridges, side by side, to replace the present obsolete High- way Bridge across the Potomac, in spite of the fact that the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission and the Secretary of the Interior oppose the two bridges and recommend a single six-lane bridge. The Commission of Fine Arts, which has the duty of passing on the artis- tic appearance of public works in and near the Federal City, has de- clared that from the esthetic point of view it prefers two four- to one eight-lane bridge, although, as will be seen later, the damage of double- approach roads to the background and setting of the newly constructed Thomas Jefferson Memorial unques- tionably is serious. The District De- partment of Highways and the Public Roads Administration, rely- ing presumably on the sharp upward trend of 1941 traffic surveys, favor the twin bridges.
The arguments against the two four-lane bridges are numerous. They include positive, immediate
damage to park lands and the Jeffer- son Memorial setting and more re- mote, but none the less real, adverse effects in contributing to the conges- tion of the downtown district of Washington.
Readers of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT may recall the objections advanced by the American Planning and Civic Association to the site of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, as it was first proposed in the middle of the Tidal Basin. The compromise, which was finally reached, placed the Memorial where it now stands, with the distinct understanding that the new Highway Bridge to replace the 14th Street structure would use ap- proaches approximately as they have now been worked out around the Memorial. This leaves an effective background of trees for the Memorial as it is seen from Potomac Park and the city. The twin bridges would destroy this arboreal background and leave the Jefferson Memorial stark against the low framework of the new bridge, thus placing the Memorial in an uncontemplated and inappropriate location. Moreover the twin bridges, besides destroying additional park land, including the
Planning and Civic Comment
rose garden, are so laid out that the South-bound motorists would have their backs to the Memoria as they travel the axis route across the Potomac, and the north-bound mo- torists, instead of approaching the Memorial directly, would look into the railroad embankment. The Na- tional Capital Parks, under the direction of the National Park Ser- vice, in the Department of the In- terior, raise these objections and suggest that the millions spent on the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials should ensure the preservation of their appropriate settings of River, Tidal Basin and trees.
But it is when we come to the basic planning reasons advanced by the National Capital Park and Plan- ning Commission that we see just how far the two-bridge scheme flies in the face of well-considered plans of the Commission, for up to gas rationing there was a real congestion of traffic due to the 300,000 gov- ernment employees, nearly two- thirds of whom came in as a result of the war, now housed in Federal permanent and temporary buildings and in private offices. The plans of the Planning Commission to dis- tribute the permanent Federal-em- ployee office population of this down- town district along a four-mile strip from the Potomac to the Anacostia Rivers, were halted by th war; but in the postwar period it is contem- plated that the Federal-employee office population of the 14th-Street district will not exceed that of pre- war period. A single six-lane bridge would provide for twice the traf- fic of the peak-load of today. The twin bridges, insofar as their con- struction delays the building of the
contemplated Alexandria bridge, would force into the downtown sec- tion a large amount of traffic which would otherwise take the Alexandria short-cut to the Capitol and eastern Washington districts. In any case, with eight lanes of traffic flowing into and out of 14th Street, which can accommodate only six lanes, including street cars, no doubt the unnecessarily increased traffic would some day force the construction of a subway for the street cars, thus materially lessening their popular short-ride service, and involving an estimated cost of $10,500,000. Added to the nearly $2,000,000 additional expense in the construction of two rather than one bridge, it can be seen that the mistake would be a costly one.
In assessing the needs for highway traffic across the Potomac, attention is called to the fact that, with the single six-lane bridge, Washington, with a metropolitan population of one and a quarter million, would have 19 bridge lanes across the Poto- mac, compared to 16 tunnel bridge lanes across the Hudson to serve New York with a population of seven and a half million and ten bridge lanes across the Delaware to serve the Philadelphia-Camden area with a population of nearly three million.
Congress created the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission "to prepare, develop and maintain a comprehensive, consis- tent and coordinated plan for the National Capital and its environs, which plan shall include recom- mendations to the proper executive authorities as to traffic and transpor- tation; . . . bridges and waterfronts,
8
Planning and Civic Comment
commerce and industry; and other elements of city and regional plan- ning." Let us hope that in the end
Government authorities and Con- gress will profit by the advice of their expert Commission on Planning!
Let us Profit by Planning Commissions
For many years the American Planning and Civic Association has claimed that town and city planning commissions, properly constituted, were the agencies to decide where all public structures in urban districts should be built, whether by Federal, state or local government. On many occasions the Association has come to the aid of local planning commis- sions against arbitrary proposals of the Federal Government for the location of Federal buildings. One has only to drive through the cities and towns of the United States to see how often the Federal Govern- ment has totally disregarded any local civic-center plan.
But progress is being made. The War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944, seeks to correct mis- takes of the past by providing that:
no loans or advances shall be made with respect to any individual project unless it conforms to an over-all State, local, or regional plan approved by competent State, local or regional authority.
The Federal Works Administration, it is understood, is submitting all proposals to this test.
In the very excellent 1944 Report to the Federal Works Agency on Interregional Highways, prepared by the National Interregional High- way Committee, appointed by the President, it is maintained that:
The interregional routes should be coordinated with the metropolitan street and highway plan. . . . The interregional
routes, however they are located, will tend to be a powerful influence in shaping the city. For this reason they should be located so as to promote a desirable development rather than to retard or to distort the evo- lution of the city. In favorable locations, the new facilities, which as a matter of course should be designed for long life, will become more and more useful as time passes; improperly located, they will be- come more and more of an incumbrance to the city's functions and an all too durable reminder of planning that was bad. It is very important, therefore, that the inter- regional routes within cities and their im- mediate environs shall be made a part of the planned development of other city streets and the probable or planned devel- opment of the cities themselves. It is well to remember in this connection that observations of the existing traffic flow may not be an infallible guide to the best locations. In many cities there are city planning commissions that have already given thought to desirable changes in the present city structure. Some of these bodies have reached quite definite deci- sions regarding many of the elements that will affect the location of interregional highways in and near the city. Usually the decisions of the planning commission have grown out of studies of the city as it is, and as the commission desires it to be. And these studies will usually afford the princi- pal data and bases for agreement upon the general locations of the interregional routes.
If this policy, so ably set forth by Mr. H. S. Fairbank, who prepared the Report for the Committee, con- sisting of Thomas H. MacDonald, Chairman, G. Donald Kennedy, Vice-Chairman, C. H. Purcell, Fred- eric A. Delano, Harland Bartholo- mew and Rexford Guy Tugwell, is faithfully followed in practice, a great contribution to urban planning will have been made.
Planning and Civic Comment
Jackson Hole Again!
The present fight against the Jackson Hole National Monument is reminiscent of the bitter fight waged by Senator Ralph Cameron and a small group of Arizona citi- zens who wished to exploit the Grand Canyon and so opposed the Proclamation of President Theodore Roosevelt creating the Grand Can- yon National Monument in 1906. The opposers to Jackson Hole National Monument have drawn in those who oppose government by executive order and those who never have liked the National Parks and Monuments anyway because they removed from grazing, mining and timber-cutting areas which they might exploit.
Jackson Hole is no horrible ex- ample of government by executive order. On the contrary the Monu- ment was created by an executive order duly authorized by Congress in the Lacey Act of 1906. And the application of the Act in the Procla- mation creating the Grand Canyon National Monument was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Albright, in his testimony be- fore the Senate Committee in the closing days of the 78th Congress, told of the past support by citizens of Jackson Hole, former Governor Miller and former Wyoming delega- tions. He said that today there is a substantial opinion in Jackson Hole in favor of the Monument. He ex- plained that it was with this support in mind, and with the approval of two Republican administrations, that Mr. Rockefeller began the long and tedious task of assembling the
scattered private lands in the essen- tial area. But, now that the Monu- ment exists and Mr. Rockefeller stands ready to donate his 33,000 odd acres of privately owned land, the controversy has been fanned to a white heat difficult for the philo- sophical observer to understand, unless it is the age-old conflict be- tween the public interest and private exploitation.
This little group of opposers would have us believe that the Federal Government should not be per- mitted to manage its own lands without consultation and control of local interests. If that had been the rule of the past, how much evidence of Conservation policies would we have today? We have had occasion many times, as in the case of Federal buildings, roads and bridges in urban districts to claim that the local city planning com- missions should have the decision as to locations. But for Federal Lands, held in Federal ownership because of the long-range policies necessary for their management, we believe that the Federal Government should be in a position to make its own de- cisions.
The one valid objection to ac- ceptance of Mr. Rockefeller's lands is the loss of some $10,000 annually to Teton County. This would be corrected by passage of the Peterson Bill to provide payments by the Federal Government to Wyoming in lieu of taxes.
Though the Barrett bill was high pressured through Congress, it is confidently expected that the Presi- dent will veto it.
10
A Plan for Plymouth
By J. PATON WATSON, Engineer and Surveyor, Plymouth, and PATRICK ABER- CROMBIE, Professor of Town Planning, University College, London, Consultants.
A Plan for Plymouth was neces- sary even before World War II, be- cause much of the property in the central areas had reached a ripe old age and was ready for re-building. The City Council, however, hesi- tated at that time to prescribe even modest improvements because of the high values created by a population of a quarter of a million and the shopping industry was convinced that their prosperity depended on the congestion and bustle which existed in the city's center.
In the Spring of 1941, however, the citizens saw most of what they knew of Plymouth and Devonport destroyed after some 40 air raids; and the City Council, realizing the opportunity presented to them called for a report on the possibility of rebuilding the city on modern lines. The "Plan for Plymouth" was the result.
Of the business and industrial belt of 900 acres, 300 acres have suffered from "blitz." Of this, 220 acres, adjacent to the city's basic indus- trial center, the dockyard, is re- quired for adequate expansion and to relieve existing congestion. The densities in this belt were as high as 256 persons per acre, and the Plan proposes to reduce this density to 100 persons per acre. A considerable disturbance of population must therefore obviously result, and their decentralization to existing suburbs is recommended.
An attempt has been made, within the limits of the natural topography
of the district, which consists of hills and valleys running east and west to strike a proper balance between its various needs and interests, such as industry, communications, commu- nity groups, housing, open spaces, and public services.
It was obvious that any planning of the actual city must have reper- cussions in the surrounding area and that the claims of agriculture as well as housing would be of importance; and the report therefore deals with an area of approximately 140 square miles.
The occupations of the town are sufficiently stable to justify long- term planning, for as long as the Navy exists, the principal industry remains ; although 2 1 percent of its in- surable population, totaling 66,000, were in pre-war days engaged in the distributive trades — proof that the city was a popular regional shopping center.
The expansion or decentralization taking place between World War I and II consisted of "sprawl" over the countryside and miles of ribbon development. It is one of the aims of the present Plan to avoid this, but, with the proposed disturbance of some 64,000 of the citizens, it is necessary after building on the avail- able land within the city to find accommodation for 40,000 of them beyond the present city boundaries. In conjunction with Britain's Minis- try of Agriculture, areas have been selected to take this overspill. |It is possible by simply building up the
11
Planning and Civic Comment
areas within the sprawling suburbs^ while retaining a density of 25 per- sons per acre, to provide for some 70,000 additional people; but some new housing areas will be necessary adjacent to the present city bound- ary, as certain existing agricultural areas within the city boundary are left as desirable dairy units.
By filling up the suburban com- munities, the establishment and maintenance of community life will be encouraged, although many peo- ple will still no doubt find employ- ment and be attracted for shopping and amusements to the city center.
The battles which have been waged from the air and brought into Britain's very households have re- vived to a very considerable extent the spirit of mutual aid existing in the streets amongst the common citizens of even the most industrial- ized towns — particularly so in those cities which have been subject to devastation by the enemy; and in a city such as Plymouth, where the traditions and heroism of its citizens are recorded in the annals of history, one would expect to find ready re- sponse to the re-sowing of the seeds of community life.
But as cities have grown to an immense size, the community of hu- man beings living together for mu- tual intercourse has become swal- lowed up in the mass, and the growth as it has spread over the surround- ing country, has engulfed the smaller village communities. It is, there- fore, necessary to disentangle sur- viving tendencies towards commu- nity grouping, as what was once the center of local life may now be a perilous shopping center on a through traffic route.
Plymouth's Plan provides for the division of the city and its suburbs into 18 neighborhoods of from 6,000 to 10,000 people around five com- munity centers, one of the latter be- ing the Cultural Center. This is a re-creation of the village green in every neighborhood, with church, schools, shops, pubs, health center, youth club, police station and library grouped around it. It is felt that in this way the spirit of mutual aid and lease-lend which is more evident in Britain's war-battered communities than for many generations, would be encouraged and kept alive.
The use of mechanical transport on a mediaeval road system led in pre-war days to alarming casualties. The number of road vehicles will, no doubt, increase rapidly after the war, and a properly planned road system is essential. Segregation of different kinds of traffic would be an important feature of such a system and the report recommends double- track roads for all main roads, sepa- rate cycle ways and footpaths re- mote altogether from the road net- work. It also recommends a system of inner and outer ring roads to re- lieve the congestion which formerly clogged the main shopping streets of Plymouth.
A bridge on the ring road over the River Tamar at Saltash gives access to Cornwall and the west and would increase business and holiday travel to and from the city; similarly, a bridge over the River Tavy at Lop- well gives a route to the vegetable and fruit-growing area of Bere Al- ston and Bere Ferrers, at present almost cut off from Plymouth except by railway. ,
The central area, which will in-
12
section of devastated Plymouth following the German aerial blitz
Proposed traffic center at the main railway station
British Official Photographs Plates courtesy The American City
13
~* ^m^ "-^. ^C
Proposed Shopping Center for the new Plymouth
:;- *^-: ": '4p
^5fl
^^e
C/V/V Center for the rebuilt Plymouth
British Official Photographs Plates courtesy The American City
14
Planning and Civic Comment
elude the business center formerly functioning as a satellite at Devon- port, occupies an area of 190 acres. Except for the City of London, it is probably the most "blitzed" area in Britain; one or two isolated build- ings stand up stark and bare, other- wise there is little property of value to purchase. Here will be located the business, shopping and civic center of the city. It is difficult to imagine a better place for a new city center, protected as it is to the south by the Hoe — the citizens' promenade and playground throughout the ages.
The backbone of the plan is a broad, undulating parkway, leading due north and south from the Sta- tion to the Hoe, with the Eddy- stone's flashing light, unbroken for 200 years, on the marine horizon and Smeaton's uprooted lighthouse on the Hoe. Here in the Sound, on the way to exile, lay a former conqueror — Napoleon — and many famous ar- mies have rested there en route to war.
The Ancients and Medisevals ap- preciated and made full use of the quietude and restful atmosphere en- gendered by keeping their churches and temples, monasteries and places of learning, away from the hurly- burly of the main thoroughfares. In comparatively modern times, Lincoln's Inn Fields and The Temple in London are embodiments of the same principle. Plymouth's pro- posed Center also contains a number of such precincts, quiet but easily accessible. The shops are located on the level land in the center, where they were before. All through traffic and bus routes are excluded, yet no shop will be more than 200 yards from a bus stop.
In this way the functions of city life are arranged in the places most suited for them so that the town may become a good place in which to dwell, work, play and do business. After all, the housewife does not keep the cooker in the bedroom nor the wash-tub in the living room. Why, therefore, should not our towns emulate the good example of a tidy home and place their activities and industries in the places best suited for them, instead of in the tangle and jumble which form the center of almost all our large cities?
There is also a civic and theater precinct, with a small banking area adjacent. The old Tudor town to the east will be preserved as a his- toric "precinct," and an industrial area is provided for around the docks to the west. There is also a feature hitherto novel to all save university towns, namely a Cultural area; this is on the higher slopes to the north, overlooking the Center, with the busy traffic excluded.
The ancient town of Sutton nest- ling to the east of the new center has so far escaped extensive damage. It is from this small township, estab- lished in the thirteenth century with a fleet of 400 vessels attached to the port, that the present city, with its population of a quarter of a million has grown. Here was the home of Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh — who first had the vision to see Devon- port's future importance as a naval base. The Mayflower Stone stands at the entrance to Sutton Pool, and many of Britain's gallant allies from America and New Zealand stand there today, paying homage to those pioneers who sailed on the "May- flower" and "Tory."
15
Planning and Civic Comment
This will form a unique neighbor- hood, surrounded by a town wall similar to the Royal Citadel fortifi- cations, and those at Ypres and bombed Valetta. It is not, however, intended to re-create it as a fake Elizabethan towrn; but rather with the use of old materials gradually to reconstruct it on its old basis as a pleasant little port and harbor with an attractive community center.
Agricultural considerations have been given a prime position in the Plan, and a report is included by Dr. Dudley Stamp, Chief Adviser on Rural Land Utilization to Britain's Ministry of Agriculture, on soil fer- tility and the relation between agri- culture and the lay-out of the town. The report not only surveys the present agricultural position in the locality, but also puts forward a plan for agricultural development which gives due consideration to other aspects of the scheme and which zones the land in terms of rural value to the community, and not in mone- tary values judged by the standards of the industrial or residential areas. The report points out that where there is good land, its quality de- pends on such factors as climate, slope, elevation and management rather than on inherent soil fertility, and indicates among other things, the necessity of preserving the steep protected valleys along the tidal estuaries which are free from early frosts and are suitable for intensive early cropping. The report aims at the avoidance of the past practice of taking the best land only for resi- dential purposes and leaving farm units uneconomic. The units in this
region vary from 60 to 100 acres.
Although the city and region suffer from the lack of secured open space, an attempt has been made in the Plan to show a continuous system of parkways along the foreshore and leading to and from the proposed north circular parkway and by-pass. Fortunately a few Devon lanes still exist within the city, and by linking those to the park system and by the preservation of tracks and paths, it is hoped that the city pedestrians may indulge in a little pleasant, absent-minded wandering without peril.
No city could have a better natu- ral setting than Plymouth, with its surrounding waterways and moor- lands, for the adequate use of leisure, and the authors of the Plan feel that, with the suggested provision for youth in the parks and recreation grounds, and the proposed facilities for community life, the city may well become one of the most pleasant abodes for the full enjoyment of life.
They realize, of course, that the translation of the Plan from paper into fact will depend on the enlight- ened judgment of the public and the city fathers. It is an encouraging sign that the Exhibition staged for three weeks in connection with the Plan attracted no fewer than 40,000 of the wartime population of 140,000; and it is hoped that popular interest and backing, combined with the nec- essary legislation in accordance with the recommendations of the Scott, Uthwatt and Barlow Committees will achieve the Plan's realization in fact.
16
Strictly Personal
Dr. Hugh P. Baker, President of Massachusetts State College, was elected President of the New Eng- land Forestry Foundation at its organization meeting a few months ago. This is a non-profit corporation for the purpose of increasing wood production and encouraging better forestry in New England.
Prof. Karl B. Lohmann has joined the staff of the Detroit City Plan Commission to study the recrea- tional potentialities of the Detroit riverfront.
Eugene H. Klaber, architect and city planner, was recently appointed to the faculty of the School of Archi- tecture at Columbia University as associate and he will direct the work in planning and housing. He was formerly Chief of the technical staff of the housing division of PWA and director of architecture for rental and Federal housing of FHA.
Milo F. Christiansen, Superin- tendent of the D. C. Recreation De- partment has been elected president of the Society of Recreation Workers of America.
Frederick J. Adams has been pro- moted from the rank of associate professor to professor on the faculty of the School of Architecture and Planning of M.I.T.
Mrs. John W. Donaldson of New York City succeeded Mrs. Luis J. Francke as Chairman of the Con-
servation Committee of the Garden Club of America. During the past summer Mrs. Francke made a tour of national and state parks in the Pacific Coast States.
Dr. Wilson M. Compton an- nounced his retirement from the management of the National Lum- ber Manufacturers Association to become president of the State Col- lege of Washington at Pullman.
Duncan McDuffie of Berkeley, Calif., has been elected president of the Save-the- Redwoods League, suc- ceeding Dr. John C. Merriam who has served the League as president for 24 years.
Henry S. Graves of New Haven, Conn., dean emeritus of the School of Forestry, was awarded the Sir William Schlich forestry medal for distinguished service to American forestry.
Ben H. Thompson has been trans- ferred from the Chicago office of the National Park Service to Santa Fe for eight months to conduct a series of boundary surveys.
John R. Kellam has joined the staff of the Toledo City Planning Commission. He was formerly con- nected with the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Com-
mission.
Douglas W. Orr of New Haven, Conn., has been appointed by Gov-
17
Planning and Civic Comment
ernor Baldwin as a member of an Advisory Committee to the Con- necticut Housing Authority.
Hon. George L. Pepler, of London, England, with the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, and well known to planners as a former presi- dent of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning, recently has been appointed a Com- panion of the Most Noble Order of the Bath by King George.
Earl O. Mills, of St. Louis, has been appointed town planning con- sultant for Greater Winnipeg. Mr. Mills has already established an office in Winnipeg for the immediate commencement of the planning project.
Carl Feiss has accepted a position with the University of Denver to perform a number of valuable ser- vices. He will work on building plans for the University, he will assist in the recently established Aeronautics Foundation, and will undertake the expansion of a plan- ning curriculum for the University. The University authorities have arranged that Mr. Feiss can work from time to time with Dr. Car- michael of the University and Dr. El Roy Nelson, Director of the Colorado State Planning Commis- sion, to develop urban and regional programs for the area. Congratula- tions go to Mr. Feiss on a multi- lateral program of service.
Lt. (j.g.) Frederick P. Clark, USNR, is now on daty in Washing- ton, D. C. Previously he was execu-
tive director of the N. Y. Regional Plan Association and before that planning director of the N. H. State Planning and Development Com- mission.
Paul A. Herbert has returned to his civilian post after two years in the U. S. Army as Captain attached to the office of Chief of Ordnance. He was formerly head of the Depart- ment of Forestry at Michigan State College, and serves as Chapter Chairman of the Michigan Chapter of APCA.
Malcolm H. Dill, of Cincinnati, Ohio, recently resigned as executive secretary of the Citizens Planning Association to become Chief, Plan- ning and Design Section of the City Planning Commission of Cincinnati. Mr. Walton R. L. Taylor of Nor- folk, Va., who succeeded Mr. Dill, had previously been business man- ager and personnel officer of the U. S. Employment Service in Rich- mond, Virginia.
Lt. Sidney N. Shurcliff, USNR, stationed in Hawaii, writes in a letter which was published in the recent issue of Landscape Architec- turey that Lt. Commander Charles Peterson, formerly with the National Park Service, recently arrived in Hawaii, for duty.
Ross Miller, formerly economic analyst with the California State Reconstruction and Reemployment Commission, has recently left to become consultant on public works and planning with the League of California Cities.
18
Press Contributes to Planning and Civic Improvement*
The Milwaukee Journal
By FRED W. LUENING
There is more to "city planning" than blueprinting structures, streets and parks. A newspaper, then, must extend its efforts over numbers of civic fields if it would aid in "the planning of a city area."
To illustrate: Milwaukee elected Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, Socialist, in 1916 and repeatedly thereafter until 1940. It became a habit. The Milwaukee Journal watched this proceeding with interest and with- out political objection. For, while the voters repeatedly were electing a Socialist mayor, they also were electing a majority of non-Socialist aldermen. The Milwaukee Journal pointed out that this resulted in a perhaps beneficial "balance." The mayor and his aides watched the aldermen; the aldermen watched the mayor. Neither could go far wrong without loud protest from the other.
However, The Milwaukee Journal noted that, due to his repeated terms in office, Mayor Hoan grad- ually was filling every appointive position in the city departments, commissions, boards, and com- mittees. The appointed adminis- trators were becoming a strong "one-way" force. This force was upsetting the "balance." Therefore, in 1936, and before that date, The Journal began pointing this out to the people. It advocated no par-
ticular successor and had no favor- ite candidate, except that, in the 1936 elections, it indicated that un- less the voters elected Joseph A. Shinners, Mayor Hoan's principal opponent, they might end up with virtual "one man government" de- spite any preponderance of non- Socialists in the common council.
Mr. Shinners lost the election by one of the narrowest margins in Mr. Hoan's long career. In 1938 and 1939, The Milwaukee Journal vigor- ously opposed re-election of the "permanent" mayor. The citizens saw the point. They elected young Carl Zeidler, who later became Lieut. Carl Zeidler and presumably was lost at sea.
Thus The Milwaukee Journal tried to help plan "the administra- tive structure of Milwaukee."
Before and during Mayor Hoan's term of office the city's debt rose to a high of $51,000,000, expressed in outstanding bonds. Mr. Hoan and others advanced the proposition that a city could be debt free by collecting "excessive" taxes — enough to create a reserve or "amortization" fund that ultimately would wipe out the debt. The Journal heartily agreed. Despite protests by many taxpayers it espoused the slogan: "No more bonds!" The city quit borrowing. It did collect taxes in excess of
*This is the third in a series of articles on the part played by the press in promoting planning and civic improvement.
19
Planning and Civic Comment
current needs. It created and rapid- ly accumulated an amortization fund. Milwaukee today is debt- free. The Milwaukee Journal thus helped plan the financial program of its city.
Milwaukee has an unusually beau- tiful lake front. It was barred against the public by private struc- tures and properties. Again it was Mayor Hoan and many others who proposed that this lake front be acquired for public use. The Journal consistently supported this endeavor and devoted columns of news and editorial comment to discussing its advantages and disadvantages. To- day Milwaukee owns the whole of its lake front, which now is open to the people.
Milwaukee needed a major "through street" in or immediately adjacent to its downtown district. A majority of The Journal's large local advertisers opposed this de- velopment which, as finally formu- lated, included an "assessment of benefits" to be imposed upon these advertisers and The Journal itself. Nevertheless, The Journal vigorous- ly advocated the improvement and included, in its campaign, dozens of editorials contending that the ad- vertisers and The Journal ought to pay.
Today Milwaukee has a wide parkway onKilbourn Avenue, within two blocks of its main street, and the property owners in the benefited district, including The Journal, have been assessed for their share of the improvement. This constituted "planning" in the more generally understood sense.
Consistently, The Journal op- posed zoning changes that would benefit a few but injure a majority.
Consistently, too, it urged employ- ment of a qualified city planner, and adequate support for the planning commission, which is known as "the Board of Land Commission- ers." Competent planners have been employed. The Land Com- mission has been sustained. Today its funds have been measureably increased to finance postwar plan- ning.
The Journal, after consultations with city administrators, agreed that a "quicky" program of public improvements, together with re- serve funds, should be devised to meet immediate postwar needs. Today Milwaukee is ready to begin a $22,000,000 expansion of public works — quite aside from its more ambitious and more general city plans — the moment war restrictions on construction are released.
This, incidentally, is not "tin cup" planning. It is to be financed locally, out of reserve funds already or now being assembled. There will be no shilly-shallying about these prans or projects.
At the moment Milwaukee, like all cities, is engaged in "postwar" planning. The Journal has advo- cated and supported an expansion of both city and county planning departments, and the creation of a housing authority, and is devoting space almost daily to urging a close correlation of these plans for public streets, zones, structures, parks and whatnot.
It is also giving its support to industrial planning, engaged in by the Association of Commerce. The purpose of this planning is "full employment" in private industry insofar as that may be possible.
20
Planning and Civic Comrnent
The Journal repeatedly has said, editorially, that success in this direction will be of greater practical value to the people, and to returning servicemen, than all the public works or public employment that can be devised.
That this philosophy has had an effect upon Milwaukee's people — that they will try to create private jobs and private enterprise in the form of new goods and expanded markets — is evident. To what de- gree they can succeed depends, of course, upon plans, affairs, or ac- tivities that may be world-wide in scope.
Milwaukee has not been more "air minded" than other normal communities, less so than those participating in warplane produc- tion, or wartime flying in its more intense aspects. Yet The Journal, foreseeing that aviation probably will become a major factor in Ameri- can transportation, has so consis- tently turned public attention to the matter that some $640,000 re- cently were appropriated to expand the city's single airport, that a second such port may soon get official consideration, that private ports are getting additional patron-
age, and that the average man is beginning to wonder whether he may not, in time, take up flying.
Milwaukee has no "airport com- mission" because it does not need one. At least The Journal never has suggested such a creation. The county board has done a reasonably competent ;ob of constructing and operating its major airport. Wis- consin, as a state, has no aviation authority because, again, it does not seem to need one. The Journal has opposed its creation, at least at this time. The state's Planning Board has done a laudable job, getting smaller airports located and de- veloped.
Milwaukee is said to be "con- servative." To a degree it may be. In part, at least, this is due to the rather cautious, studious approaches and advocacies of its major news- paper, The Milwaukee Journal, never disposed to be swept off its feet by appealing but perhaps im- practical proposals, yet always — for well over 25 years — ready to advo- cate and support public or private projects that seem to promise sound and permanent benefits to a majority of the people.
Planning Positions Open in Detroit
The Detroit Civil Service Com- mission announces openings for two key positions in the City Plan Commission, Assistant Director of City Planning and Head City Plan- ner, for which open competitive examinations will be given January 24, 1945, in Detroit and in other cities throughout the United States
most convenient to applicants, where such arrangements can be made. Applications can be secured by writing to the Detroit Civil Service Commission, 735 Randolph, De- troit-26, and must be received by the Civil Service Commission on or before January 17, 1945.
(concluded on page 26)
21
Recent Court Decisions
Compiled by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Counsel A.P.C.A.
Zoning — Unrestricted Districts — Spot Zoning — Non-conforming Use The defendant Rosenthal, who occupied three adjoining stores con- verted into one by the removal of partitions and all situated in a resi- dence zone from which business was excluded, contended that the zoning ordinance which he was violating was illegal : First, because it left one district in the town unrestricted; second, that the ten or eleven busi- ness districts created by the ordi- nance were widely scattered and amounted to spot zoning; the de- fendant also claimed that the use of property which was complained of existed at the time of the passage of the zoning ordinance and should be allowed to continue as a non- conforming use.
On the question of unrestricted districts the court said : "Nothing in the zoning statute or in common sense requires a municipality to im- pose a restriction on all its territory as a condition of the exercise of its zoning power." The unrestricted district in question was an old sea- port area where the buildings were devoted to all kinds of uses, and it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to impose reasonable re- strictions on it.
As to "spot zoning," the invalidity of spot zoning depends upon more than the size of the spot. The court did not find in this situation a "sin- gling out of one lot for different treatment from that accorded the
similar surrounding land ... for the economic benefit of that lot." The court further said : "The zoning law can not be overthrown in its entirety if somewhere there can be discovered an instance or two of spot zoning which might be successfully attacked by a person injured there- by."
The facts about non-conformity were that the defendant had oper- ated at the time of the adoption of the zoning ordinance a neighbor- hood tailor shop in which light hand labor played a principal part. Most of the clothes were sent out to be cleaned. There was no equipment for dry cleaning. Members of the defendant's family and two other employees did the work. The com- plaint now charged that the de- fendant had installed complete me- chanical equipment for dry cleaning, employed sixteen to seventeen peo- ple, collected clothes and cleaned them on the premises. Although a mere increase in amount of business done or even a great increase might not work a change in use, the court found here a change from a store to an industry, a difference in quality as well as in degree.
Town of Marblehead v. Rosenthal. Massachusetts Supreme Court 55 N.E. 2nd p. 13, April 1944.
Zoning — Non-conforming Use
The defendant Meixner, who was operating a non-conforming use in a residence district, secured a permit from the superintendent of buildings
22
Planning and Civic Comment
for certain alterations, but instead of making the alterations called for in his application he built a new floor and two small buildings for the stor- age of combustible material, two ventilating stacks, and a large chim- ney. The board of adjustment re- voked the permit and the court held in reviewing the case that under the zoning ordinance of the City of Newark, what the defendant did amounted to a structural change for which he should have gone for per- mit to the board of adjustment.
Meixner v. The Board of Adjustment of Newark, N. J. New Jersey Supreme Court 37 Atl. p. 678, June 1944.
Zoning — Non-conforming Use — In- terpretation oj Language The zoning ordinance of the City of Bridgeport, Conn., contains this provision on non-conforming use: "Any non-conforming use . . . may be continued and any existing build- ing designed, arranged, intended or devoted to a non-conforming use may be structurally altered and the non-conforming use changed subject to the following regulations."
The proprietor of a non-conform- ing restaurant where beer only was sold applied for a permit to sell all alcoholic liquors, and the lower court ruled against granting the per- mit on the ground that the ordinance permitted changes in a non-con- forming use only when there were also structural changes. The Su- preme Court, pointing out that it would be simple to make minor structural changes in order to get a permit, found that this was not a correct interpretation of the ambigu- ous language of the zoning ordinance. The ordinance should be interpreted
to mean that any non-conforming use may be continued; any existing building may be structurally altered; any non-conforming use may be changed: all subject to the regula- tions as set forth in the zoning ordinance.
State ex rel. Chatlos v. Rowland. Con- necticut Supreme Court 38 Atl. p. 785, July 1944.
Zoning — Abandonment of Non-con- forming Use
Although the words "abandon- ment" and "discontinuance" are uniformly strictly interpreted and strong evidence of the intent of the owner or lessee of premises to aban- don or discontinue the use must be presented, there is an intimation that there would be a different ruling if the words used in the zoning ordi- nance were: "provided that any such building which is not used for such non-conforming use for a period of 180 days, must thereafter con- form to the regulations."
UHman v. Payne. Connecticut Supreme Court 127 Conn. p. 239.
Zoning — Conflict of Law
The lower court ruled that the beverage license act of Pennsylvania repealed the zoning act passed in 1923, but the Supreme Court held that where the contention is that an act of Legislature repeals another act not expressly but by implication, it must be shown that the two are inconsistent. There was no evident legislative intent to permit a liquor establishment in any community regardless of the wish of its citizens previously expressed and exercised (through the zoning ordinance), and both acts were enforcible within the
23
Planning and Civic Comment
scope of the purpose for which they were adopted.
Borough of Kingston v. Kalanosky. Pennsylvania Supreme Court 38 Atl. p. 393, July 1944.
Zoning — Variance
The board of appeals granted a permit for the construction of a fac- tory in a residence district as a vari- ance, and this was held to be an error on their part by the court, since there was no peculiar hardship. It was just bad zoning in the first instance, which should have been remedied by amendment of the ordinance. Nevertheless the court sustained the action of the board of appeals on the ground of war emergency.
Spadafora v. Ferguson. Supreme Court of Oneida County, New York, 48 N. Y. Supp. p. 698, June 1944.
Zoning — Unreasonability
It was decided that the zoning ordinance of Port Huron was illegal as to the defendant because it in- cluded his lots in a residence area of the first class. The lots adjoined on one side a considerable area main- tained by the city as a tourist trailer camp. On another frontage was a street adjoining a public beach where there was considerable park- ing of cars.
Pringle v. Shevnock. Michigan Su- preme Court 14 N.W. 2nd p. 827, June 1944.
Zoning — Procedure
The zoning ordinance provided that no amendment should become effective except by vote of not less than five members of the board of adjustment confirmed by a favor- able vote of not less than three-
fourths of the entire membership of the city council, "if a report adverse thereto shall have been rendered by the board of adjustment."
The board of adjustment rejected a petition of amendment in its en- tirety but granted a portion of it by five votes, and this was confirmed by a vote of less than three-fourths of the city council. In interpreting the provision of the zoning ordinance the court ruled that since the city council concurred in the decision of the board of adjustment, a three- fourths vote was not necessary.
Warren v. Borawski et al. Connecticut Supreme Court 130 Ct. p. 676, April 1944.
Outdoor Advertising
An important decree was entered on October 16, 1944, in the Suffolk (Mass.) Superior Court against the Donnelly Billposting Company. Sev- eral signs belonging to this company were violating the rules and regula- tions of the state department of public works. They were located within 300 feet of a public reserva- tion and they had received no per- mit from the department. The de- cree permanently enjoined the Don- nelly company from maintaining these billboards and advertising de- vices and declared them to be public nuisances upon the premises where they stood. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, but since the rules and regulations of the depart- ment of public works have already been sustained in the famous Massa- chusetts case of General Outdoor Advertising Company versus De- partment of Public Works (289 Mass. p. 149) there is little chance of a reversal of the decree in the Supreme Court.
24
1944 Fall Planning Conference at M.I.T.
The Conference on City and Re- gional Planning held at Massachu- setts Institute of Technology from October 16 to 27, 1944, was the best attended and in many ways the most successful conference since this type of planning education was inaugu- rated at M.I.T. in 1937.
Seven States — New York, Massa- chusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama and Washington — and two Canadian provinces — On- tario and New Brunswick — were represented. The group was more than usually directly connected with local or regional planning activities. Of the nineteen participants, four- teen were either members of plan- ning agencies, directors of planning, site planners, or members of the staffs of planning agencies. As in other years, Mr. Adams presided over the sessions on planning tech- niques and Mr. Shurtleff over legis- lation and administration. Two members of the Conference, Mr. Bonner of Monroe County and Mr. Wheeler of Westchester County, New York, told of their work in directing the planning activities of their respective counties. Addi- tional lectures were given by Homer Hoyt, director of economic studies of the Regional Plan Association of New York, who spoke on the eco- nomic bases of city growth, and Eric F. Menke, Washington archi- tect on the staff of the Chief of Engineers of the U. S. Army.
Mr. Menke, who was a participant of the Conference last year, showed historical and modern maps of Washington. He traced most inter-
estingly the development of the Capital City from 1791 to 1944. The members of the conference responded with keen interest in the discussion and expressed the opinion that the Capital was of vital concern to planners and citizens throughout the country. It was hoped that Washington will continue to lead in sound planning, worthy of the tra- dition and ideals of its founders, especially George Washington and Charles Pierre L* Enfant.
At the dinner given by M.I.T. to the participants of the conference at the Engineers Club of Boston, Dean Caldwell addressed the group, and Miss Sedweek replied for the partici- pants with spirit and appreciation. Prof. Hebrard, distinguished archi- tect and planner, added a note of caution and optimism for his col- leagues. Dean Wurster, recently appointed to the School of Architec- ture, expressed satisfaction with this year's conference and the increased attendance by architects. He stressed the effort necessary for re-orientation and re-education to regain lost ground in the field of community planning and civic de- sign which in the past was clearly understood to be a major part of architectural practice. He was pre- sented with a rare map of Wash- ington, D. C., by Mr. Menke. Mrs. Wurster (Catherine Bauer), well- known as an author on housing, was present.
This conference was part of a new educational program for profession- als actively engaged in planning practice. In the spring of this year a
25
Planning and Civic Comment
three months' course was introduced which proved to be an important feature. Increased attendance is expected next year.
Prof. Adams and Prof. Shurtleff have received wide reputation for their excellent coverage of the entire field of city and regional planning in these courses. Their concise pre- sentation and fine team work will attract many active planners in the future under the new program.
Those who registered at the Con- ference were:
Lr.(SB) (E) KENT BARKER, RCNVR, representing the Department of Planning and Development, Gov- ernment of Ontario, Ottawa, Can- ada.
VITO P. BATTISTA, Architect, De- partment of Public Works, New York, N. Y.
JOSEPH BEVACQUA, Planner, Town
of Irondequoit, Rochester, N. Y.
J. FRANKLIN BONNER, Director of
Regional Planning, Rochester,
N. Y.
PHILIP BREZNER, Architect, Detroit,
Michigan.
ROY S. COLE, Planner, Building In- spector, Greece, Rochester, N.Y. CHARLES S. CONRAD, JR., Architect,
Armstrong Cork Co., Lancaster. Pa.
RITA DAVIDSON, Graduate Student, Harvard, New York, N. Y.
E. STANTON FOSTER, Regional Proj- ect Planner, FPHA, Seattle, Wash- ington.
OSBORN R. FREEMAN, Consultant, Boston City Planning Board, Roxbury, Mass.
JOHN HARMAALA, Beverly Planning Board, Beverly, Mass.
JEAN HEBRARD, Professor of Archi- tecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
J. CAMPBELL MERRETT, Town Plan- ning Director, St. John, N. B., Canada.
LEROY A. RIEGEL, Project Planner, Region II, FPHA, Morrisville, Pa.
TESS M. SEDWEEK, Executive Secre- tary, Niagara Frontier Planning Board, Buffalo, N. Y.
HARRY A. SHARPE, Site Planner, FPHA, Cleveland, Ohio.
JACK B. SMITH, Birmingham Plan- ning Board, Birmingham, Ala.
OLIVE TJADEN, Architect, Queens Village, L. I., N. Y.
CHESTER E. WHEELER, Planning Engineer, White Plains, N. Y.
PLANNING POSITIONS OPEN IN DETROIT
(concluded from page 21)
Both positions will involve re- familiarity with management prin- ciples and practices. Education equivalent to graduation from a university with specialization in fields relating to city planning is required.
Assistant Director of City Planning
administering the preparation of $6990-7710
design plans, preferably in preparing Head City Planner $5750-6470
a master plan and considerable
26
sponsibility for administrative di- rection of technical activities, for the purpose of developing both the master city plan and current plan- ning programs. Applicants must have considerable experience in
'^
I
"Private ownership or lease of land within a national park constitutes an undesirable encroachment, setting up exclusive benefits for the individual as against the common enjoyment by all, and is contrary to the fundamental purposes of such parks." — Hon. Louis C. Cramton, former Member oj Congress from Michigan.
There are still more than 600,000 acres of privately owned and other non-Federal lands scattered in many areas of the national park system. No money has been provided to buy these lands, which remain as one of the most serious obstacles to the conservation and use of the national parks. As soon as possible after the war Congress should authorize the acquisition of these lands and should provide the necessary funds.
PARKS herewith presents scenes in the Saguaro and Joshua Tree National Monuments of Arizona and California. These Monuments have been established for many years but the Na- tional Park Service cannot give them adequate protection or the necessary facilities for public use, because the key lands are not Federally owned. The University of Arizona has purchased lands in Saguaro to protect them but wishes to dispose of them. Unless the alienated lands are acquired in the near future, the public is apt to lose its stake in these unique national monuments.
Cover. A Southwestern visitor enjoys the Saguaro National Monument.
Right. The exquisite and rarely seen flower of the Night- blooming Cereus, another of the many varieties of cactus in the Saguaro National Monument.
Desert and boreal plants of amazing diversity are found in Saguaro National Monument. This finest saguaro stand, how-
ever, is not reproducing itself. Available information indicates that the grazing of domestic livestock may be the cause.
Scenic pictures, unless otherwise indicated, courtesy of the Department of the Interior.
Plant and animal adaptations and relationships in this desert area are °f great scientific interest. The Monument includes a mountain which rises six thousand jeet above the saguaro desert. Scientists tell us that the desert plants have evolved here where they are found but that the boreal plants, found on the mountain, are migrants from far north. Shown here are some characteristic citizens of Saguaro National Monument: a young red-tailed hawk, collared lizards— pugnacious and cannibalistic, a hog-nosed skunk, and a black-tailed jack rabbit.
Joshua trees lift their arms to the sun in the Joshua Tree National Monument, Cali- fornia.
•
.
^f
A great variety of desert scenes is found in Joshua Tree National Monument, within easy driving distance of the Los Angeles metro- politan region. A checkerboard pattern oj private and state lands, however, effectively blocks the proper development and use oj the area.
Left. The entrance to Rattlesnake Canyon.
Below. The ivraith-like Joshua trees oj Lost Horse Valley.
•• • i,
Water is precious in this desert. Shown on this page is Cottonwood Spring, an oasis.
Right. A desert garden of cholla cactus above Pinto Basin {the Basin is shown on the next two pages also) in Joshua Tree National Monument.
ir
•fHB
The elusive, pale blue-green smoke trees of Pinto Basin.
A tumbling beetle, one of the often seen inhabitants of the Southwestern desert monuments, goes about his mysterious business.
State Park
More than 40,000 acres of five recreational demonstration areas formerly administered by the Na- tional Park Service have been trans- ferred to the States of South Caro- lina and Tennessee since the latter part of May.
This brings to a total of 18 the number of such areas transferred to the States under authority of the act of June 6, 1942. The 13 previously transferred have a combined area of 77,432 acres, and are located in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michi- gan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia. Thirteen other projects totaling 68,991 acres are available for trans- fer to the States of California, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Ore- gon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The areas transferred since the latter part of May recently are de- scribed briefly below.
Fall Creek Falls Recreational Demonstration Area of 15,776 acres is located in Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties some 50 miles north of Chat- tanooga, Tennessee. It contains a spectacular dissection of the Cumberland Plateau and a water fall 256 feet in height, which is believed to be the highest east of the Mississippi. Development con- sists of one 48-camper-capacity camp and simple day-use facilities.
The 12,258-acre Shelby Forest is located on the Mississippi River a few miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. A 112-camper-capacity group camp and fairly extensive day-use facilities serve largely the City of Memphis, and the area has a considerable volume of year-round use.
Cheraw, an area of 6,618 acres, located in Ches- terfield County, South Carolina, a few miles south of the North Carolina State line, contains two group camps, one of 158-camper-capacity and the other of
64-camper-capacity, and also day-use facilities. An area of 206 acres, formerly a portion of the Cheraw Recreational Demonstration Area, has been transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior for use as a fish hatchery.
The 6,175-acre portion of Kings Mountain Recreational Demonstration Area is situated in Cherokee and York Counties in South Carolina, just south of the State line. It contains two or- ganized camps of 96- and 72-camper capacity, respectively, and day-use facilities. The remainder of the original 10,147-acre area was added to Kings Mountain National Military Park in 1940 by Act of Congress.
The six wayside areas, comprising the South Carolina Waysides project, vary from approxi- mately 30 to 63 acres. These areas are located adjacent to principal highways and provide facilities for picnicking and relaxation by the traveling public.
Tabulations on expenditures, sources of funds, personnel, land acquisition, and attendance, com- piled from the 1943 "Annual Rec- ords on State Park Lands and Re- lated Areas" have been issued by the National Park Service as a mul- tilithed pamphlet entitled "State Parks— 1943." Some of the more significant facts and trends revealed by comparison of data from a group of key state park agencies are as follows :
1. Expenditures for maintenance and operation, land acquisition, and improvements have declined respectively 22, 48 and 54 percent from 1942.
2. Funds available for expenditure have de- clined 24 percent, and revenue derived from opera- tions, 22 percent.
3. The total number of year-round personnel has increased 16 percent; but the total number of seasonal, professional year-round, and seasonal professional personnel has decreased 37, 23 and 56 percent respectively.
4. There has been an increase of 73 percent in the number of new areas acquired, and an increase of 300 percent in the number of acres. Land ac- quisition would have shown a considerable decline, however, had it not been for the transfer to the States of 12 recreational demonstration areas, total- ing 86,938 acres.
5. Total attendance declined 41 percent, but overnight visitors declined only 4 percent.
43
Planning and Civic Comment
Alabama. It was reported in the August issue of "Alabama Conser- vation" that a program of postwar state park additions and improve- ments exceeding $1,600,000, de- pending upon the availability of state and Federal funds, has been announced by Conservation Direc- tor Ben C. Morgan. Swimming facilities, cabin and hotel accommo- dations are the major needs. Pres- ent facilities under wartime condi- tions will accommodate only a small percentage of those attempting to rent cabins.
California. Responsibility of the Division of Beaches and Parks was broadened by the 1943 Legislature to cover all publicly owned beaches where state funds are to be used for erosion correction or erosion pro- tection. There was created also the position of "Beach Erosion Control Engineer," an examination for which was held on September 23. The duties of the position are as follows :
(a) To study and report upon problems of beach erosion and means for the de- velopment, protection and improvement of beaches and shoreline areas.
(b) To investigate and report to the State Park Commission upon beach areas suitable or needed for public recreation purposes and to prepare plans for the im- provement, development and protection of public beaches.
(c) To cooperate with all agencies of government, Federal and State, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this code, and to act in an advisory ca- pacity on beach erosion, protection, im- provement and development when re- quested by political subdivisions of the State, when so authorized by the State Park Commission.
(d) To assist in the preparation of a State master plan of shoreline develop- ment, which plan shall take into con- sideration, correlate and coordinate, as nearly as feasible, the master plans of shoreline development of the various coastal counties of the State.
Will Rogers State Park, an area of 186 acres of the home ranch of the world-famous humorist, located in the city of Los Angeles, was accepted by the State Park Commission as a gift from Mrs. Betty Rogers, just two days before her death. The real and personal property is valued at $550,000.
The Commission approved on July 3 a classification of the areas administered by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The classifica- tion, which covers three categories — parks, monuments, and beaches — was made at the request of the Department of Finance because the 1943 session of the Legislature abolished the State Park Main- tenance and Acquisition Fund, and in lieu thereof created the State Park Fund and the State Beach Fund. For the purpose of adminis- tering these funds the historical monuments are included with the parks.
Connecticut. The State Park and Forest Commission has acquired for a state park the Gillette Castle in the town of East Haddam, the resi- dence of the late William Gillette, famous actor. The area was pur- chased with $20,000 from state funds and $10,000 raised by the Connecticut Forest and Park Asso- ciation from more than 80 donors.
Georgia. State park superinten- dents have been appointed Deputy Wildlife Rangers so that they may cooperate in the enforcement of game laws and the conservation of wildlife in the parks.
Illinois. Governor Green an- nounced on September 15 that the State has a $7,000,000 program for the construction, improvement, and
44
Planning and Civic Comment
development of state parks. Com- pletion of this program will place at least one state park within 50 miles of every Illinois community. Blueprints for improvements total- ing $3,750,000 have already been prepared.
Indiana. About ten requests for reservations for each hotel room or cabin in the state parks are being received this season. It is believed that this unprecedented number of requests is due to wartime restric- tions on travel which have made it necessary for Hoosiers to seek their vacations near home.
Richard E. Bishop, planning di- rector of the Department of Con- servation of Indiana, reports on behalf of the Planning Committee of which he is chairman, two interest- ing developments in the planning work of that Department which have occurred during the past year. One of these is the use of aerial photographs, in lieu of, or supple- mentary to, actual surveys of prop- erty. The other development is the planning of overnight accom- modations to accommodate not only hotel guests at the State Park Inns and campers who bring their own tents or trailers, but also those who prefer the middle course. Ad- ditional cabins have been planned for occupants to cook their own meals, obtain light lunches at the park commissary or patronize the hotel dining room.
Kansas. Dave Leahy has suc- ceeded Guy D. Josserand as Direc- tor of the Forestry, Fish and Game Commission.
Missouri. It was reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch of August 4 that the Constitutional Convention
had accepted a section introduced by Delegate Jacob L. Babler, pro- viding that the General Assembly must provide a minimum of about $400,000 annually for the acquisi- tion, development and maintenance of state-owned parks and forest resources for 15 years after the adoption of the new constitution.
New York. By act of the 1944 session of the Legislature, all his- toric sites formerly administered by the Division of Parks and the Di- vision of Lands and Forests, except Crown Point Reservation and Lake George Battlefield Park, have been transferred to the State Department of Education for administration.
North Carolina. In the August 20th issue of the Durham Herald- Sun, Superintendent of State Parks, R. J. Pearse, advocates recreational parks and forests as war memorials for towns, cities, counties and States. Mr. Pearse states that the Department of Conservation and Development would welcome areas suitable for well-planned develop- ment and operation.
The Society of American Foresters has begun a study of state forestry administration in North Carolina to define and establish standards necessary for the efficient adminis- tration of the State's forest resources. Mr. Alfred B. Hastings of Ken- sington, Md., has been assigned as project representative. A grant of funds from the Charles Lathrop Park Forestry Foundation makes the project possible.
Tennessee. The State's Ten- Year Plan for developing additional rec- reational areas and facilities for its citizens and tourists is outlined in the April-May issue of The Ten-
45
Planning and Civic Comment
nessee Conservationist. The pro- gram provides for a recreational area within 50 miles of every citizen and avoids duplication by various public agencies and private enterprise. Of particular interest is the cooperative agreement carried out through a "grant-in-aid" furnished by TVA, whereby the Division of State Parks works with the Authority in planning for the recreational use of all TVA reservoirs.
Texas. The giant live oak cover- ing more than 6,000 square feet at Goose Island State Park has been pictured in Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" with the caption "The Largest Live Oak Tree in the World, Rock- port, Texas, 50 feet in circumfer- ence, 118-foot spread and 2,000 years old."
Report of the Fourth Annual Meeting
of
The Association of Southeastern State Park Directors
By HAROLD W. LATHROP, St. Paul, Minn.
The fourth annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors was held in New Orleans, October 12 to 16, inclusive. Park directors and their associates from ten of the twelve States in the southeastern region were present. The program arranged by President William W. Wells of Louisiana, and Secretary Lewis G. Scoggin of Florida, included a number of en- lightening discussions relative to state park administration, main- tenance and operation. The Na- tional Conference on State Parks was represented by President Harold W. Lathrop, Director of Minnesota State Parks, and the National Park Service was represented by Sidney S. Kennedy.
Mr. Wells presided at all sessions which were of a roundtable nature, each topic being initiated by a dis- cussion leader, followed by a general participation of the entire group.
The discussion on "The Need for A College Course to Train Park Personnel" was led by William W. Hay of Tennessee. It was apparent that an immediate need exists for specialized short courses to train park superintendents. The value of a four-year college course for park training was also considered. Sev- eral members indicated their belief that a state park superintendent should have a well rounded out administrative training rather than be a college graduate. Others con- tended that actual field experience is necessary before formal park or conservation education. The sug- gestion was made that some college in the region might be induced to inaugurate a park training program after the war in conjunction with the Federal training program for ex-servicemen. It was agreed that the conservation of natural resour- ces "including human beings" is one
46
Planning and Civic Comment
of the greatest public responsibilities we have today and in the future. Because of the anticipated expan- sion in the state park field after the war, some contended that college training for park personnel is in order if such functions as architec- ture, landscape architecture, en- gineering, forest management, wild- life conservation and other related phases including business adminis- tration are to be properly tied to- gether for the best administration of state parks. The consensus of opinion was that every park super- intendent should be a good public relations man.
Mr. Lathrop led the discussion entitled 'The Relative Position of the State Park Program in the Over- All Recreation Field." He stated, "The State's duty is greater than merely to supply recreational op- portunities which its civil sub- divisions cannot provide. It is the State's function to preserve and make available for public enjoy- ment its finest scenic and historical areas. The States should supply facilities of types which other agen- cies cannot or do not normally furnish." The use of state parks for healthful outdoor recreation has been truly recognized during the war and it was the unanimous opin- ion of all participants in this dis- cussion that the demands upon state park facilities after the war would require far greater expansion in facilities than was accomplished in the last decade.
The article published by the Federal Security Agency entitled "Recreation — A New Function of Government," was discussed at length. The management of recre-
ation on the several governmental levels within a State, by a depart- ment of recreation separate and apart from other state departments concerned with education, welfare, health, conservation and planning, was considered unwise as there might be a tendency to regiment recreation in state parks which would be undesirable. The repre- sentatives expressed disfavor to any such type of state recreational de- partment, but were agreed that if such were absolutely necessary, the state park departments would be the logical existing agency to carry on such a program through the initiation of a special bureau within such departments.
Mr. Emmett L. Hill, administra- tive assistant and landscape archi- tect in Florida, led the discussion on "Operation of Organized Group Camps." The need of expanding facilities for organized group camps was apparent in all states repre- sented. State agencies are pressed for period assignments by all types of organizations and only a fraction of such requests can be accommo- dated in the existing camps. It was agreed that from a maintenance standpoint, barracks were far more satisfactory than the four-cot cabins prescribed by the National Park Service. Underprivileged groups should receive first priority in assignment of state parks group camps. Camping organizations such as Boy and Girl Scout troops and Campfire Girls, should be given second priority. Religious organi- zations which do not generally carry on a nature program should be given third priority, and only as a last resort should camps be leased
47
Planning and Civic Comment
to private groups which operate for financial profit. The greatest need in group camps is trained leader- ship to insure successful waterfront, craftsmanship and other programs. Group camps have become educa- tional institutions in America and state park administrators should take an active interest in helping to program the best possible utiliza- tion of camp facilities and should encourage use for a longer period than the three summer months, especially in the southern States where weather permits.
The discussion of "Federal Aid to State Parks, Post War Planning, and State and Federal Cooperation" was led by Mr. R. J. Pearse of North Carolina. It was unanimously agreed that war-time America will turn to the healthful outdoor recre- ation provided by the state park system as soon as peace comes. People are vacation starved, for a greater portion of the at-home pub- lic have had to forego their vacations during the last two years. Federal aid was responsible for the major portion of the development of state parks in the southeastern region through the CCC and WPA. The most effective method for the de- velopment of state parks after the war would be state-financed and state-controlled. If Federal aid is necessary to meet unemployment, particularly among war veterans, congressional recognition should be given the bill drawn up by the Na- tional Conference on State Parks, calling for Federal aid in a manner similar to that given the state for- estry agencies under the Clark- McNary Bill. The state park offi- cials in thirty States have indicated
their approval of the bill, the ap- propriation for which would be distributed on the basis of 80 per- cent in the ratio which the popula- tion of each State bears to the total population of all States, and on a 20 percent ratio of the areas which each State bears to the total area of all States. Under such bill, the National Park Service would act only in alloting funds for improve- ment projects and in an advisory capacity to the States, but having no direct management of the in- stallations of the park improve- ments.
Mr. Scoggin of Florida led the discussion "Association Coopera- tion and Dissemination of General State Park Literature." It was agreed that all the Southeastern States must advertise their park facilities not only to travelers but to their own people. A good state park system means that recrea- tional facilities are available close by for most everyone, making several vacations a year possible. A unified advertising program for all state parks in the southeastern region was considered and a com- mittee is to be appointed to work out such a program on the premise that travelers to the warmer cli- mates must pass through a number of the southeastern states and if appraised of the state parks enroute, would visit and enjoy the facilities existing therein. By such an educa- tional program it was felt that many of the southeastern state parks which are now only about 50 percent self-sustaining could be operated entirely from revenues.
At the business meeting, Mr. Lathrop stressed the need for similar
48
Planning and Civic Comment
regional organizations.lt was pointed out, however, that the National Conference on State Parks was in the best position to give lay support to Federal and state programs and that such regional systems should not be expected to take the place of the national organization.
Mr. Hay was elected to assume the office of president on January 1, and Mr. James L. Segrest of Ala- bama, the office of Secretary-Treas- uier.
By resolution, the National Con- ference on State Parks was urged to consider the holding of a joint con- ference with the Association in the fall of 1945.
The excellent program of dis-
cussions was supplemented by a fine program of entertainment which consisted of a guided tour of the Old French Quarter, a tour of the har- bor of New Orleans aboard a Dock Board yacht, inspection tour of Audubon Municipal park and City park, and a boat trip across Lake Pontchartrain to view Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana's finest, with a return boat trip to terminate a very interesting and educational conference.
At the invitation of Mr. Wells, Mr. Glen Durrell, Director of For- ests and State Parks of Oklahoma and his state park superintendent, Don Stauffer, also attended the meetings.
Better Roads Ahead
By FLAVEL SHURTLEFF
We may confidently assume that road building will be a principal public works activity after the war. All the signs point to a program of great volume and considerable va- riety.
There has been practically no road building for three years, and a great gap is to be filled. No other public project can contribute so much to the task of converting soldiers into peacetime workers. The direct and incidental employ- ment through a road-building pro- gram can be immediate at the close of the war and can absorb a great number of workers.
The much-discussed project of a national cross-country highway sys- tem is now or soon will be before Congress. The States will be stimu-
lated to build roads by Federal grants. There will be new roads built on new rights of way, old roads widened and improved, and new approaches to cities either as . parts of a parkway system or as additions to the all-service highways. We are concerned here only that highway authorities may be per- mitted to profit by the experience of the last several years, and that safety, efficiency and attractiveness may be written into the design of all principal highways, whether in the state or the national system. The four following suggestions have often been discussed in meetings of high- way authorities. They are generally accepted as a sound working basis subject to differences in details under widely differing conditions.
49
Planning and Civic Comment
Much more "coimplete" highways
should be planned.
All the essentials to give the utmost in service, safety and beauty should be in- cluded at the start in the plan of the road and in the land acquisition program. This means in addition to an engineering plan, at least a landscape plan for public land and all the proposals for the treatment and use of private land on the border of the highway.
Rights of way should be wider, preferably nothing less than 2oojeet for principal highways. Ancient limitations on the right to acquire land for highways should be re- moved, by direct legislation where nec- essary. Some state statutes still insist that no more than 60 feet should be acquired for principal highway routes. In other States the highway authorities are re- stricted by court interpretation of the words "public use." Where the court has said that public use as applied to highway widths means only enough land to ac- commodate the lanes of traffic, it may be necessary to have a legislative deter- mination that at least 200 feet are needed for road travel and its protection. A 50- foot buffer strip of public land between the traveled way and private land may well be as essential to the efficiency and safety of the highway as the 60 feet de- voted to actual traffic lanes.
Highways should have and use the right to build limited-access roads. Under the law abutting private property has a right of access to the highway. Road junctions, especially where private roads enter the highway, are notoriously points of hazard, and exits and entrances to roadside business establishments are dan- gerous and reduce the efficiency of the through highway. Additional legislation may not be necessary in all the States to give highway authorities the power to build non-access roads, but it is safer to pass such a law and to include in it the right to designate existing roads as non- access roads. Such laws passed in seven- teen States have been analyzed and a pro- posal containing the best features ot all these laws has been presented in a publi- cation of the Federal Public Roads Ad- ministration.*
The principle of limited access has been thoroughly tested on at least a thousand miles of highway, notably on the 35 miles
of the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and on the 160 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. Whether parkways or all-service roads, these limited-access roads are carrying a greater volume of traffic more speedily and more safely. Additional or alternative methods oj
protecting the highway may be
necessary.
Limited access coupled with wider rights of way will discourage most of the objectionable uses of highway frontage. But special situations may limit the effectiveness of this combination, or high cost of land may prevent its use. Under such conditions the State may acquire the right to have a strip of land at the margin of the highway free from business struc- tures, or free from any structures except fences. Highway authorities will be in a good position to secure these rights in land at little additional cost when they are securing other lands for the highway and paying good prices for them.
Finally, the State may regulate the use of land within a certain defined travel corridor. Certainly as strong a case under the police power can be made of this use of the zoning principle as for its use by municipalities which is now so common and so universally upheld by the courts of all the States. The difficulty is not in the validity of highway zoning but in securing its adoption by a state legislature. Wher- ever the proposal has be^n presented it has met the solid opposition of the repre- sentatives of rural communities. Although highway zoning affects only a narrow strip of land; rarely over a thousand feet wide, and although m any rural community the land in question is but a fragment of the total land in the community, yet it is regarded as another invasion by the State. Consequently various modifications have been suggested: (a) Let the zoning scheme be worked out by a state agency, but let it be applied only to communities under 5000 in population; or (b) to all communities, but only when they have voted to adopt the regulations; or (c) only when the community has for a period of years neg- lected or refused to act. Up to now these suggestions have made little headway.
State zoning of highway corridors has great merit. All the land within the high- way zoning district will be placed either in a business or a residential zone. Instead of the spotty results from local zoning the system will be comprehensive.
*PubIic Control of Highway Access and Roadside Development. Federal Public Roads Administra- tion, Washington, D. C. Obtainable from Government Printing Office, Washington.
50
Watch Service Report
This issue of the Watch Service Report includes important bills which have passed Congress, bills which have been introduced and bills which have changed status since last report. AH unpassed bills will die with the 78th Congress.
National Parks
H. R. 3524 (Randolph) introduced Oct. 25, 1943, passed House April 17, passed Senate June 22, 1944. Approved June 30. P. L. 386. To provide for the establishment of the Harpers Ferry National Monument. Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to accept donations of land, buildings, structures in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, not to exceed 1,500 acres, and the property acquired shall be a public national memorial commemorating historical events at or near Harpers Ferry. The undertaking contemplates the inclusion of the old arsenal ruins; the scene of John Brown's capture; the chain of forts across the Potomac River on Maryland Heights; Jefferson Rock over- looking the Shenandoah River frequented by Thomas Jefferson; and the old cemetery where is located the grave of Robert Harper, Quaker wheelwright and founder of the town.
H. R. 5469 (Peterson of Fla.) introduced Nov. 16, 1944. A bill providing for payments to the State of Wyoming in lieu of taxes on private lands acquired by the United States within the Jackson Hole National Monument which were in effect on March 15, 1943, and for rights-of-way including stock driveways over and across Federal lands and for the continuance of leases, permits and licenses on Federal lands which were in effect on March 15, 1943. This bill was referred to the Committee on the Public Lands and, if enacted, might prove the solution of the Jackson Hole controversy. The Barrett Bill to abolish Jackson Hole National Monument (H. R. 2241) last June was reported favorably by the House Committee by a split vote, with a minority report signed by Chairman Peterson of the Public Lands Committee and others. When it appeared that the bill might not be brought to a vote, Congressman Barrett secured a rule under which in the closing days of the Session the bill passed the House by a vote of 178 to 107 with 142 not voting. As soon as the House passed the bill on Monday, December 11, it was rushed to the Senate where the Wyoming Senators, both on the Public Lands and Surveys Com- mittee, pressed for immediate action. Public hearings were held on Friday and Saturday, December 15 and 16 though many who wished to be heard could not reach Washington, and the bill was reported favorably by a vote of 9 to 4, with the Chairman of the Com- mittee voting against the bill. The Barrett Bill passed the Senate in the last hours of the session, on December 19. It is expected that the President will veto the bill outright or fail to sign it in a pocket veto. No action has been taken on the various bills to repeal sections of the Lacey Antiquities Act.
H. R. 3084 (Magnuson) introduced June 30, 1943. To amend the Act entitled "An Act to establish the Olympic National Park in the State of Washington," approved June 29, 1938, so as to grant for an indefinite period the right to locate and patent mining claims within certain areas of Olympic National Park. The Department of the Interior has submitted a report with reference to this bill stating that it would approve the bill only if it were amended to provide an extension of time to the end of the war or six months thereafter.
H. R. 5058 (Engle) introduced June 19, 1944. To provide for the issuance of grazing permits for livestock in the national parks and national monuments. The APCA has consistently supported the National Park Service in its policy to keep the National Parks and Monuments free from grazing and to reduce existing rights as rapidly as possible. The passage of this bill would be a step backwards.
H. R. 5627 (Coffee) introduced December 16. A bill relating to the acquisition of certain property within Mount Rainier National Park. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands. This bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire 300 acres in the Park, now the property of the Northern Pacific Railroad, at a price not to exceed $25,000 to prevent cutting.
Postwar Planning
S 2051 (George) passed Senate August 11; passed House August 31; signed by the President October 3. P.L. 458. Amendment to Social Security Act known as War Mo- bilization and Reconversion Act of 1944. Establishes the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion. Title V — Public Works provides that in order to make advance provision for the construction of public works (not including housing) the Federal Works Adminis- trator is authorized to make loans or advances to the States and political subdivisions to
51
Planning and Civic Comment
aid in financing the cost of architectural, engineering and economic investigations and studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures and other action preliminary to the construction of such public works. Funds to be allotted: 90 percent in the proportion which the population of each State bears to total population of all the States, and 10 percent according to discretion, provided that the allotments to any State shall aggregate not less than 1 percent of the total funds available, also provided that no loan or advances shall be made to a project unless it conforms to an over-all state, local or regional plan approved by competent state, local or regional authority. Advances shall be repaid when construction of public works is undertaken. However, no money was appropriated.
Housing
S 1767 introduced March 18, 1944, passed Senate March 24, passed House in amended form May 18, approved June 22, P. L. 346. To provide Federal Government aid for the readjustment in civilian life of returning World War II veterans, called the G. I. Bill of Rights. Section 501 provides that veterans who wish to buy or build homes, may under certain restrictions as to ability to pay and reasonable price, apply for guaranties of loans to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, provided the guaranty does not exceed 50 percent of the loan or $2,000, and provided also that no first mortgage shall be ineligible for insurance under the National Housing Act by reason of any secondary lien upon the property involved securing such loan. Section 505 provides that the Administrator shall designate agencies equipped to determine whether the guaranty of loans should be ap- proved by a Federal agency to be made, guaranteed or insured, and the veteran is in need of a second loan to cover part or all of the remainder of the purchase price. The Administrator, subject to certain limitations, including the $2,000 limit, may guarantee the full amount of the second loan; provided the second loan shall not exceed that on the principal loan by more than 1 percent with certain joint provisions for amortization. Other provisions are made for purchase of farms and equipment and purchase of business property.
Federal City
S. Res. 184 introduced Oct. 4, 1943 — gave authority to the Sub-committee to inves- tigate the program of the National Capital Housing Authority, headed by Senator Bur- ton, with Senators McCarran, Tydings, and Capper as members. Over a period of months extensive hearings were held. On August 7, Senator Burton announced that he had turned over to the National Industrial Conference Board, a research organization located in New York, the hearings of his subcommittee for a detailed study of Washington's slum clearance problem.
S. 2183— H. R. 5511 (Bilbo-Randolph) introduced Nov. 16, 1944 and Nov. 21, 1944. A bill authorizing and directing the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to con- struct two four-lane bridges to replace the existing Fourteenth Street or Highway Bridge across the Potomac River and for other purposes. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Bills opposed by the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission.
H. R. 5449 (Randolph) introduced November 14, 1944. A bill to provide for the construction, maintenance and operation of a national stadium, parade field, swimming pools, and other recreational facilities to be located in the District of Columbia and for the creation of a corporation for effectuating the purposes of the act. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia.
H. R. 5497 (Randolph) introduced November 20, 1944. A bill to authorize the con- struction of a parade field, swimming pools, stadium and other recreational facilities in section F, Anacostia Park, in the District of Columbia. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia.
H. R. 5517 (Randolph) introduced November 21, 1944. A bill authorizing con- struction of a national war memorial stadium with necessary appurtenances in the District of Columbia. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Approved by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
H. R. 5458 (Weiss) introduced November 14, 1944. A bill to provide for the erection of a veterans' memorial stadium in the District of Columbia. Referred to the Committee on Buildings and Grounds.
S. J. Res. 155 (Bilbo) introduced November 14, 1944. Joint Resolution establishing a Commission to select a site and design for a national memorial stadium to be erected in the District of Columbia. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Passed Senate December 8; passed House with amendment on December 12, so that the
52
Planning and Civic Comment
stadium commission would have the right to recommend a site rather than actually select one. This amendment was approved by the Senate.
The National Capital Park and Planning Commission which places upon the National Park Service through the Department of the Interior the responsibility for construction of the stadium upon park lands belonging to the Federal government in Anacostia Park, also includes and authorizes construction of the necessary parking facilities, approaches and walks, together with appropriate landscape features, all to be approved by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts. This bill also would place the responsibility for maintenance and operation of the Stadium in the National Park Service because the Stadium will be located in the Park System of Washington administered by the National Park Service. Under the bill, it would be possible for the Secretary of the Interior to lease the Stadium to any appropriate group.
Regional Planning
H. R. 5377 (Cochran) introduced September 18, 1944. Would establish a Missouri River Authority to provide for unified water control and resource development on the Missouri River and surrounding region in the interest of the control and prevention of floods, the promotion of navigation and reclamation of the public lands, the strengthen- ing of the national defense.
Highways
S. 2105-H. R. 4915 (Hayden-Robinson) introduced in Senate August 22 and in House June 1, 1944. Passed Senate September 15; passed House November 29. To amend and supplement the Federal-Aid Road Act approved June 11, 1916, as amended and supple- mented, to authorize appropriations for the postwar construction of highways and bridges, to eliminate hazards at railroad crossings, to provide for the immediate prepara- tion of plans and acquisition of rights-of-way, and for other purposes. Under the con- ference report plan approved by conferees of both Houses, the Federal Government authorizes the appropriation of $1,500,000,000 to become available at the rate of $500,000,000 for three successive fiscal years for projects on the Federal-aid highway system; $225,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid highway system; $150,000,000 ior projects on the principal, secondary and feeder roads and $125,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid highway system in urban areas. In addition funds are authorized for park, forest and Indian reservation roads in addition to the matching program. For construc- tion of roads and trails, inclusive of the necessary bridges, in national parks, monuments and other areas administered by the National Park Service, a sum of $12,750,000 for three successive postwar years; for the construction and maintenance of parkways to give access to national parks and monuments, a sum of $30,000,000 is authorized for three successive postwar fiscal years. The appropriations will not be made until the end of the
New Planning Association in Colorado
Three Colorado counties have revision and extension of county
organized the Tri-County Regional zoning ordinances; to study the
Planning Association, for Adams, need for building codes in the coun-
Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties, ties; to plan for a broad public
with headquarters in the Denver works program.
University Government Center, with Members of the new Commission
Ira J. Bach, architect, as director. are: John Meier and Clarence Koch
Its purpose is to develop a uni- of Jefferson County, Chauncey Win- form plan for the improvement and ton of Adams County, and Melvin growth of the three counties; to pre- Ericson and Temple Buell of Ara- pare plans for the suburban de- pahoe County. Advisers are Irving velopment of the three Counties McCrary, Walter Pesman, S. R. and Denver; to work with the DeBoer and Vern Harrison, legal county planning commissions on the adviser.
53
Commentaries
The American Institute of Planners, after a lapse of a year and a half, now comes forth with a new Journal, with a new but impressive format and a charming cover. We extend congratula- tions to Editor Paul Oppermann, Assistant Editors Harold W. Lautner and Lawrence Orton, and Managing Editor Draveaux Bender, who, under the stimulus of President Lewis, have produced an issue of such excellent con- tent and appearance. Attorney Bett- man leads off with the paper which he gave at the Institute meeting in Chicago last April. (Mr. Bettman further de- veloped his ideas at the St. Louis Plan- ning Conference in June as will be seen in the forthcoming APCA ANNUAL.) Tracy Augur follows with clever com- ment on Stuyvesant Town in which he is far from blind to its limitations and positive faults but to which on the whole he gives his blessing. Russell Black dis- cusses The Composite Profession of Planning, which is not unlike some of the thinking of our British cousins. Says Planner Black:
The planner is a technician engaged in the over-all or comprehensive planning of urban areas, or in applying similar tech- niques to larger and more inclusive areas in which such techniques are applicable. There is no question in my mind but that the job of such a planner comprises a true profession even though a composite one. . . . The planner of a particular project con- ceivably may be a group of men rather than an individual. . . . But not many cities and fewer planning budgets are large enough to employ a balanced group of technicians. Usually, one man must assume all technical responsibility. To do so intelligently and successfully he must be more and less than an architect, an engineer, a landscape architect, a lawyer, a sociologist and an economist. He must comprehend the fields of all of them, must have considerable specific knowledge in each field, but need be master of none. . . . Given an opportunity, good engineers have always produced technically good transport and sewerage systems; good architects have produced fine civic centers; and good landscape architects have pro-
54
vided fine park systems. But too rarely have all these things been achieved to- gether as an integrated whole. . . . Far- sighted integration of urban development is the chief new thing that planning has to offer. . . . The point is that city planning and its practice extend beyond the realm of ideas, to the molding of land and structures to multiple human use and purposes.
And as a final warning Planner Black asks that friends of planning discrim- inate between good and bad planning and save cities from "quacks, charlatans, ambulance chasers, and innocent in- competents" who may maltreat the city.
The Journal also contains a thought- ful Statement for the Public on Planning, which was inspired at the get-together of Institute members at the St. Louis Conference on Planning. George Her- rold makes two distinctions for the layman. He claims that city planning has to do with locations rather than with plans and specifications. Says he:
The preparation of plans and specifica- tions for a bridge would be the work of an engineer, but the location of the bridge should be determined by the city planner . . . and has to do with the origin and destination of the traffic it is to carry; its effect on land values, and its influence on the habits of the people. . . . Everything in a city is related to everything else. It is the purpose of city planning to disclose these mutual relationships and with the support of an enlightened public opinion aid in producing a city of character.
The November, 1944, National Mu- nicipal Review is a handsome brown-and- gold covered magazine in commemora- tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the League. The pages tell a lively history of the movement through the pens of the illustrious actors. A roster of the founders and early officers includes: Theodore Roosevelt, Louis D. Brandeis, Charles J. Bonaparte, Carl Shurz, R. Fulton Cutting, Charles Francis Adams, William Dudley Foulke, Charles W. Eliot, Lawson Purdy, Richard L. Dana, Charles Evans Hughes, Raymond B.
Planning and Civic Comment
IngersoII, Henry M. Waite, Franklin L. Polk, Richard T. Ely, Frank A. Vanderlip, Murray Seasongood, Harold W. Dodds, and Clarence A. Dykstra. But, lest the conclusion be reached that all famous leaders in the League are retired or deceased, we list among the current Officers and Council: John G. Winant, George Gallup, Richard Childs, Henry Bruere, Charles Edison, Brig. Gen. Robert W. Johnson, Francis Keesling, Mrs. Eugene Meyer, Lt. Com. Harold Stassen, Mayor Wilson Wyatt, Charles A. Beard, Harold S. Butten- heim, A. R. Hatton, Charles E. Merriam, William B. Munro, Chester H. Rowell, Belle Sherwin, and Charles P. Taft.
We extend to the National Municipal League, and its indispensable Review, our congratulations for the first fifty years and our best wishes for the next fifty years.
The September-October Journal oj the Town Planning Institute gives every evidence that British planners are think- ing hard about the various Government proposals for postwar reconstruction. W. L. Waide, at a May meeting of the Institute, pled for a Factual Basis for Planning, without which planning in fact is little more than intelligent guess- ing. In discussion, Mr. E. C. Kent hazarded the opinion that:
Many people still believe that planners only pay lip service to democratic ideals, whilst what they are doing in practice is to advocate an increase of public control over quite a number of so-called freedoms of the individual, and to work for varying degrees of direction and regimentation so as to satisfy a slightly ridiculous desire to abolish ugliness and recreate beauty in our physical surroundings. ... If planners could prove to their lay friends, and all those on whom the realization of planning depends that their object is as practical as it is ideal and artistic, they would have that decisive influence on the shape of things to come which they believe planners ought to have not for their own gratifica- tion but for the benefit of at least two of the coming generations. . . . Planners be- lieve that with proper planning in the economic field it is possible to abolish
unemployment and want. . . . Such tre- mendous changes are now impending. Is it too much for planners to press for con- trol of location of industries, and keep de- manding that central planning authority without which no national plan can come to life?
At the 1944 Summer School at the University of St. Andrews, Fifeshire, September 18-25, it became apparent that while planning is not a new thing to Industry, the war has resulted in the introduction of planning departments in many industries which previously worked by rule oj thumb. At the session on the Training oj Planners, presided over by Mr. George Pepler, Miss Tye- whitt declared:
The chief duty of the planner is to see that single unrelated action is avoided, to obtain general approval to a scheme, and to coordinate a team of workers.
Max Lock said that he would like to see an addition to the curriculum to lay the basis of appreciation of environment. He thought the leader of the planning team might well be a geographer- economist for national planning, an en- gineer for regional planning, and an architect for local planning.
W. Dobson Chapman, speaking in North of England and South Wales, dis- cussed the current Government Reports and warned that those useful adjectives impracticable, uneconomic, visionary, and Utopian would be broughtoutofcoldstor- age to pour cold water on proposals to remake Britain. But:
Given the will we can have towns with economic and social balance in which civic and social life may flourish and find physi- cal expression, dignity and beauty, and we can have a prosperous countryside, which does not lag far behind the town, providing a full economic and social existence where natural beauty is safeguarded as a heritage which all may enjoy. The alternative is a repetition of trie disastrous blunders which followed upon the heels of the last war and left us with a de-populated coun- tryside and an urban structure festering in brick-red rash far into its vitals, whilst the core of every large town or city rotted slowly but surely to its death.
The Town and Country Planning Bill, as summarized, does not purport to deal with town and country planning in
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Planning and Civic Comment
general; it is almost entirely concerned with land acquisition with reference to reconstruction, and the financial pro- visions only provide Government assist- ance in respect of acquisition related to planned reconstruction fallowing exten- sive war damage. Wider proposals of the Government are set out in the White Paper — The Control of Land Use. The bill empowers the Minister of Town and Country Planning to declare areas which have sustained extensive war damage or land required for re- placement to be subject to compulsory purchase. The local planning authority will be that in which the war damage occurred. The areas must be shown on maps. The Authority must indicate the lay-out. Land may be purchased for highways related to planned recon- struction of war-damaged areas or the development of over-spill areas. The Minister is empowered to make grants to local planning authorities for ex- penditure incurred in buying and clear- ing war-damaged or replacement areas to the extent of the loan charges for two years. The Minister may make further grants for a further period of eight or thirteen years. The bill provides that the Treasury will have to be satisfied that, as far as practicable, the recon- struction scheme will ultimately become self-supporting. The bill extends the power of compulsory purchase to enable a planning authority to secure sites needed in order to produce a proper bal- ance of development, alternative sites required for development in the public interest and alternative sites to provide accommodations for persons wishing to return to the area but for whom accom- modations cannot be provided in the area consistent with good planning, and alternative sites for the displaced. The bill enables a local planning authority to appropriate or dispose of land ac- quired, subject to the approval of the Minister. The bill empowers the local planning authority, with the consent of the Minister, to erect any buildings or carry out any works for which there are not already statutory powers on any land held or acquired, but the Minister is precluded from giving bis consent ij private enterprise is able and willing to
erect the building or carry out the work "at such time and in such manner as may be requisite /or meeting the purpose Jor which it is needed."
In Town and Country Planning for September, 1944, there is an excellent statement by the Executive Committee of the Association which indicates ac- ceptance of the main ideas of the Barlow Report (See January and July 1943 PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT), the White Paper as an important statement of Compensation and Betterment, and the Bill as an installment of the nec- essary new legislation. The Association makes a plea for a national planning policy to prevent ill-considered local planning projects under pressure of speed for postwar housing. In the White Paper the Association welcomes ac- ceptance of the Uthwatt Report analy- sis, cordially supports the Government's proposals for a National Compensation and Betterment Fund, administered by a National Land Commission, and dis- cusses pro and con the effects of certain alternate policies. The Association be- lieves that the Planning Bill, as drawn, conceives of planning as too exclusively a local matter (See article by F. J. Osborn, July 1943 PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT). The Association is interested in the transfer of popula- tions and approves the bill insofar as it meets the demands. The Association believes that the powers proposed to be given local authorities for building are wise. The Association calls for an Ad- visory Commission on Large Scale Estate Development to be created by the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, which, it is thought, should be regarded as the central planning agency, with authority over the location of industry fitting into the national town and country planning policy, through the aid of an Advisory Commission on Location of Industry also to be attached to the Ministry.
The Quarterly presents proposals for Edinburgh, Plymouth (See page 11 of this issue) and Birmingham.
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Planning and Civic Comment
The Autumn Town and Country Planning, just received, opens with an Editorial on Time Against Us. Specif- ically the Association complains:
With the European War in the last phase, it now seems that Peace will find us unready with our plans for physical re- construction. The danger we have re- peatedly cited since 1940 is materializing; that the pressure for any sort of housing anywhere will defeat the attempt to plan. The Ministry of Health's call to local authorities to re-commence housing on the 1939 assumptions and the 1939 scale was departmentally excusable but Govern- mentally inexcusable. The decision to construct 250,000 temporary houses, with- out a hint of a national policy for their location, is almost contemptuous in its disregard of planning considerations. . . . Even at this eleventh hour, a resolute planning policy, based on a few simple principles, could retrieve the situation. The Planning Ministry . . . could classify wide areas of this country as areas for restriction of development, areas for en- couragement of development and areas where development is neither restricted nor encouraged — thus giving ample latitude for freedom of industry and building enter- prise. If they at once announced such a classification, and at the same time indi- cated definite maximum standards of residential and neighborhood density which will be imposed in the sanctioning of all planning schemes, the principle of the national plan would be clear. . . . We implore the Government to give the necessary lead while there is still time. The Nation will not forgive them if they con- tinue to stand by and watch the resump- tion of pre-war trends of urban develop- ment, after the hopes aroused by the Bar- low, Scott and Uthwatt Reports and all the discussion of these fateful years.
In the same issue G. B. S. is quoted on Planning:
The economic future of the land is with collective farms and garden cities; and no person whose notion of land reform is to turn all the crude agricultural estates into little peasant properties and leave cities as they are (there are many such simple- tons) should be allowed to meddle with politics in any capacity. It is, however, psychologically advisable to plan collective farms and garden cities in such fashion that every house should have attached to it a private plot to play in or grow flowers and vegetables. . . . The land question is one of private life as well as economic
productive life. Private life produces babies, who are more vitally important than crops and factory output.
To the Journal of Housing, Vol. 1, No. 1, the new organ of NAHO, we ex- tend a welcome. NAHO's broadened program covers many problems:
Over three-quarters of a million war houses present both the compelling prob- lems of management and operation now, and the intricate problems of demobiliza- tion as the war ends. — The permanent low-rent housing program calls for read- justment to the conditions of peace and for expansion to serve low-income families who can not otherwise obtain decent housing. — The operations of private build- ers must be expanded. — Home ownership must be made ever more secure. — Pro- cedures must be developed which will more effectively assure proper maintenance of dwellings and their neighborhoods. — Vol- umes of talk about urban redevelopment must be translated into working programs. — Effective housing regulations must be extended beyond their few lonesome beachheads of today. — Better neighbor- hood design must be sought and made effective. — Housing must become an in- tegral part of city planning, rather than a strange and sometimes suspected inter- loper; and official housing activities, whether affecting public or private hous- ing, must develop mature relationships within the structure of public adminis- tration. — There must be searching evalua- tion of the standards of planning and design that have produced the new hous- ing of the past decade, and of the proced- ures and practices used in the mainte- nance and operation of that housing.
Van Beuren Stanbery, Chief of the Technical Staff of the California State Reconstruction and Reemployment Commission, sends us four striking pamphlets entitled How Many Cali- fornians? — Richmond, California, a City Earns the Purple Heart — The Bay Region Takes Stock — How Much Postwar In- come? Most people may not realize that between April, 1940 and January, 1944, California showed an increase in popu- lation of 22.4 percent, the greatest numerical increase of any State for the
57
Planning and Civic Comment
same period and bringing California to third place in the Union, exceeded only by New York and Pennsylvania. As compared with the increase of 74 per cent in national income from 1940 to 1943, California showed an increase of 102 per cent. In 1943 California had a higher per capita income than any other State. But this means that California's income in the first postwar year will shrink proportionately more than the Nation's because of the greater severity of economic adjustments. In the end, postwar reduction in buying power need be only temporary if constructive spending and reinvestment by individ- uals, corporations, and governments provides enough production and con- sumption to create a higher standard of living.
The Bay Region stocktaking results from a pooling of interests of the many populous cities and towns surrounding San Francisco Bay. Realistic surveys of what the region has to offer new industry are proposed. Ronald Campbell, plan- ning consultant for San Mateo County, has already made such a survey. Con- cerning the vast war population which came to Richmond, it may be noted that by mid-1944 over 550 ships had slid down the Richmond ways, including more than one-fifth of all the Liberty ships built by the United States, sometimes at the rate of over one ship a day. That meant that the people living in Rich- mond had quadrupled. For the postwar period, Richmond must know what will happen to the mammoth Kaiser ship- yards, what is to be done with the tem- porary war housing and if and how the Federal Government will provide finan- cial aid to the city and to the school dis- tricts to construct improvements that will reestablish normal community facilities for the city's postwar popula- tion.
From Stephen C. Noland, Chairman of the Indiana Economic Council, we have received a fine, illustrated report on County Forests for Indiana. Under an Act of 1943 counties may establish, maintain and control county forests. It is not unreasonable, it is stated, to ex-
pect the ultimate total area of county forests to equal, if not exceed, the public forest acreage now in state and national ownership in Indiana. The publication is dedicated in gratitude to the memory of Richard Lieber, who, from the formation of the Council in 1943 until his death April 15, 1944, was its Coun- cilor.
The Greater Columbus (Georgia) De- velopment Committee, under the Chair- manship of Walter Richards, as reported in the Journal of Housing, contributed $52,500 to apply against the purchase of a site for a Federally-owned war housing project, thus ensuring slum clearance and an important step in the realization of the city plan. Congratulations to the Greater Columbus Committee!
Paul R. Fossom, Chairman of The Mayor's Research Committee on Urban Problems, has, with the aid of his com- mittee and excellent editorial assistance, prepared for the Mayor a Report on Tacoma, the City We Build. For Tacoma, the Committee recommends larger ap- propriations for planning, a Metro- politan Executive Committee, a Met- ropolitan Sanitary District, the prep- aration of a contour map, the more efficient development of the city's hydro- electric power resource, the extension of the jurisdiction of the Port Commission over the entire tide-flats industrial area, provision for a balancing reservoir to equalize water pressures, an adequate wholesale market, reduction of water pollution, provisions for certain high- ways and bridges and a central bus station, adequate downtown parking space, a green belt around the west and south portions of the central business area, a new Federal Building near the Post Office, a municipal quadrangle for city offices, neighborhood park-playfields and recreational parks, relocation of Stadium High School and a new Senior High School, a new Library, Civic Auditorium, freight and passenger air- port, airfields for private planes, and a municipal corporation to hold for the
58
Planning and Civic Comment
city in perpetuity all tax-delinquent land. For the Puget Sound Area, recom- mendations are made for truck, pas- senger car, dual-purpose, and scenic highways, with certain vehicular tun- nels; the encouragement of decentraliza- tion of suitable types of industry along the proposed highway system to en- courage domestic agricultural produc- tion, control of pollution of waters, and adequate research. For the region, the committee recommends agricultural and marine research, development of re- gional highways, mountain roads and trails, railroad modernization, develop- ment of water transportation for bulk freight and adequate airport facilities for private, public and freight vehicles. Such plans put into effect during the next decade would revolutionize Tacoma and its environs. In the absence of Mayor Harry P. Cain with the War Department, the Report is being dis- tributed by Acting Mayor C. V. Faw- cett.
The American Transit Association has issued a Convention-in- Print, pub- lished November 3. Charles Gordon, Managing Director (who spoke at our St. Louis Planning Conference), ex- plains that the second Convention-in Print takes the place of the 63d Annual Meeting, thus contributing to the con- servation of travel space. The issue is essentially devoted to planning. Eric Johnston, President of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, urges flexible plans, with urban highway plans directed to the best interest of the community and provisions for the more efficient handling of automobile and community transit facilities.
Among the well-known planners who have contributed to the Convention-in- Print are Harold Lewis, and Frank Malley. Harold Lewis, President of the American Institute of Planners, writes on Transit and the Master Plan. Says Mr. Lewis:
Comprehensive city planning should be of great aid to public transit companies, in that the purpose should be to stabilize travel routes and traffic fluctuations, pro- mote orderly growth, arrest excessive decentralization, peg land values and
coalesce land uses into natural zones or neighborhood units integrated with the main channels of traffic movement. . . . Traffic management has a responsibility to its passengers to take more active part in the assembling of data basic to the com- munity plan upon trends in land uses, population distribution, traffic movement and consequently upon transit routing and service.
Frank Malley, Planning Director of the Buffalo City Planning Commission, writes on Location and Functions oj Urban Freeways. Charles De Leuw, of De Leuw, Gather & Co. (a firm which has recently cooperated in a Trans- portation Survey and Plan for the Cen- tral Area of Washington, which, how- ever, was not submitted to the National Capital Park and Planning Commission before publication), writes on Postwar Transit and Highway Plans. Thomas H. MacDonald, Commissioner of Public Roads, describes Analysis of Urban Travel by Survey Technique, a system which relies very heavily on existing conditions and their trends, unmodified by comprehensive city plans for re- distribution of the population.
All in all, the promise for better under- standing and closer cooperation between engineers dealing with highways and transit and city planning consultants, should be of interest to the American citizen who uses these facilities.
The California Roadside Council with the Cooperation of Albert S. Bard, Counsel for the National Roadside Council, has issued an excellent State- ment on Retroactive Zoning, the Legal Principle and its Application for the Elimination of Rural Billboards. In Vermont, the statute compels the re- moval of existing nonconforming bill- boards. In Massachusetts, thirteen "retroactive cases" have been decided by the Supreme Court. All were cases in which a substantial expense was thrown upon the property owner in order to make his property conform to new conditions, or else he lost a beneficial use of his property which he wished to retain. The State of Virginia has made specific provision for the ultimate
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Planning and Civic Comment
elimination of many nonconforming uses in its Municipal Zoning Enabling Act of 1936. In Arlington, Virginia, the County ordinance permits billboards in only three zones — General Business, Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial. All nonconforming signs in Residential or Rural Areas were required to be moved within ninety days. In Pennsylvania, the state statute provides that the "board of county commissioners may in any zoning ordinance provide for the termination oj nonconjorming uses, either by specifying the period or periods in which nonconforming uses shall be re- quired to cease, or by providing a for- mula or formulae whereby the com- pulsory termination of a nonconforming use may be so fixed as to allow for the recovery or amortization of the invest- ment in the nonconformance." New Orleans enacted an ordinance in 1940 creating a Commission to regulate the uses and appearance of property in the Vieux Carre and wholly eliminates out- door advertising. The State Supreme Court has upheld the law. In Florida, the regulations of the state law which affect existing billboards were sup- ported by the Supreme Court of the State. The Delaware laws contain a retroactive statute giving three years' grace to nonconforming structures. Under a New York State law, about 2000 boards were removed from the Adirondack Park, and the action was upheld by the State Supreme Court. In Glynn County, Georgia, several thou- sand signs have been removed from some beautiful marsh lands under a county ordinance which provides for the desig- nation of scenic areas in which no per- mits for advertising signs will be granted. The Zoning Ordinance of Marin County, California, eliminates billboard adver- tising in rural, unincorporated areas throughout the county and this pro- vision is retroactive. With all these precedents we do not need to fear the bogie of perpetual nonconforming use. We can and should rid every community in the United States of all nonconform- ing uses under progressive zoning regulations.
"Ding" Darling, in the November- December number oj The Conservation Volunteer, presents the first installment of an article on Poverty or Conservation. He declares:
Productivity of soil is the "bottle-neck" of human existence. . . . Can any thought- ful person say that with 80 per cent of our forests already cut down, 75 per cent of our grasslands grazed to a stubble and millions of acres of underbrush cleared from our hillsides we have not constricted the bottle-neck instead of enlarging it? ... Robbing the rich soils to produce larger and larger annual harvests may be the most costly type of farming practiced. It was exactly that type of farming which started millions of acres of American farm land down the road to the desert.
Carl Feiss has an illustrated article in the November Magazine of Art on Hous- ing and the Urban Esthetic. Mr. Feiss concludes:
Certainly our cities need designing. Since it is beyond the powers of our plan- ning commissions and municipal authori- ties to redesign and repair a city in one great project such as those now being contemplated for the rebuilding of Coven- try, Plymouth and London, we must be satisfied with piecemeal improvements, hoping that, project by project, our cities will be repaired and rebuilt. Perhaps in the fullness of time and good fortune, and by dint of some conscious effort on our part, our citizens will create freely and democratically cities which are truly beautiful. May today's good housing design be the ancestor of tomorrow's good cities.
The New York City Planning Com- mission issued in November a Report on Amendments o/ the Zoning Resolution affecting Height and Area. Edward M. Bassett, Chairman of the Committee that drafted the original Building Zone Resolution, commented in a recent com- munication to the Commission :
The zoning method can be employed to increase light, air and spaciousness. There was too much congestion when zoning started and there is too much congestion now. New congested construction can be continued after the war if the zoning reso- lution is not amended.
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Planning and Civic Comment
The principal points made in favor of revision were that excessive building bulk in commercial districts has resulted in street congestion and inadequate light and ventilation; that the present zoning resolution permits the erection of multiple dwellings with excessive height and area; that apartment house construction in the Boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, has been and continues to be planned with ex- cessive coverage; that present regula- tions permitting ground floor coverage of practically 100 percent for retail stores have an extremely detrimental effect upon adjacent residential build- ings. It is said that the standards for public and semi-public housing are many times higher than those of private developments.
On November 1, proposed amend- ments were adopted by the Planning Commission, together with a resolution, which were then filed with the Secretary of the Board of Estimate in accordance with the provisions of Section 200 of the New York City Charter.
In Nature Magazine for December there is an article on Choosing Britain's National Parks by W. S. Morrison, M.C., K.C., Minister for Town and Country Planning. One-fifth of the 58,000 square miles of England and Wales, is wild, uncultivated land — mountain and moorland and rocky coast. 'The Peake District of Derby- shire is ringed," says Mr. Morrison, "by more than a hundred towns where nearly eight million people live." Mr. Morrison describes the British concept:
The sort of National Park that Britain wants to see is a whole extensive area of beautiful and semi-wild country in which the characteristic landscape is carefully preserved. This does not mean shutting off the whole area as a "Nature Reserve," an Eden without whose fence the country- lover may stand and stare. On the con- trary, full and proper access will be given to the public, for the only justification for preserving beauty as beauty is the people who want it. Strictly delimited, "Nature Reserves" will find a proper place within the National Park in neighborhoods where the existence of any particular species of
wild animal or plant seems threatened. Life within the National Park area of Britain will go on as usual, for farmer and blacksmith and shepherd alike — not as museum pieces showing a picturesque past, but as live elements in a vital rural econ- omy that has made the country scene what it is today.
The National Trust has already pur- chased Chiddingstone, a charming vil- lage in southeastern England, including inn, village shop and Tudor cottages. The Trust, which now holds more than 100,000 acres, has also purchased The Seven Sisters in Sussex, the most fa- mous of the white cliffs of England.
The Central Planning Board of New- ark, N. J., has issued its Preliminary Report on the Scope of the City Plan through Harland Bartholomew and Associates to be the first in the forth- coming series which will comprise the Newark Master Plan. Harry W. Alex- ander is serving as Resident Planner, with William W. Anderson as Assistant Resident Planner.
This Report treats with the scope of the plan and is set up in such a manner as to acquaint the Board and the general public with the objectives and program of the Central Board as prescribed by the ordinance under which the Board was organized. Two and one-half to three years will be required to complete the Master Plan.
Newark has been planning since 1912. In 1911 the Newark Evening News carried stories on city planning and in 1912 an unofficial city plan was prepared by Charles F. Puff. In 1911 a City Planning Commission was appointed, and in 1915 a Comprehensive Master Plan was issued, one of the first of such plans to be prepared in the United States. Since 1915 the city of Newark has ex- pended many millions of dollars on major improvements. Some of these improvements were recommended by the Plan; some were not.
During 1943 certain leading cities and public officials became concerned with the future of Newark. Under the leadership of Mayor Vincent J. Murphy, an official planning agency was recom-
61
Planning and Civic Comment
mended to assume the planning re- sponsibility. The creation of the Newark Central Planning Board followed the enactment of an ordinance creating the Board on June 16, 1943. Its two func- tions are the making and adoption of a comprehensive city plan and the prep- aration of a program for postwar public works improvements within the frame- work of the plan. We shall look forward to receiving subsequent reports in the series.
sive as to apply to both rural and urban communities.
Mrs. Teresa Zimmerly, Executive Sec- retory of the Indiana Economic Council, has compiled a Manual of Planning Legislation and Procedures of Indiana, which is an invaluable reference on planning in that State. Indiana is for- tunate in having enacted planning legis- lation on three levels of government — city, county, and Statey- and one of the aims of the Manual is to point out methods of correlating and integrating planning activities of all three levels of government. An excellent feature is a summary of all Indiana planning acts.
The Manual of Post-War Planning for Cities and Towns in Rhode Island just published by the Rhode Island State Planning Board is intended as a guide for Central Planning Authorities of the cities and towns of Rhode Island in the study of postwar problems. The Manual subcommittee is composed of T. Albert Coyle, Chairman, Philip A. Feiner and John Hutchins Cady, and it is to be congratulated in publishing a very valuable aid to the advancement of local planning.
Important emphasis is laid upon the cooperation and assistance of public- minded citizens. The method outlined in the Manual is to delegate to com- mittees and subcommittees, composed of experts in their respective fields, a consideration of the various fragments of which a master plan of the community would be composed for systematization and coordination by the Central Plan- ning Authority. The list of topics in- cluded in the Manual is so comprehen-
Arthur G. Drefs, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, in a foreword to the new publication, Styled Highways of Tomorrow in the St. Louis Metropolitan Region, says that highway construction is an essential part of any postwar pro- gram and points out that this Highway Report has been published to encourage early preparation of blueprints in order to be ready for contract letting and employment when hostilities cease.
The Highway Program Committee which developed the program for the St. Louis Region has Harry F. Thomson as chairman and the program developed after many conferences with interested public officials and private citizens in both Illinois and Missouri. The Com- mittee is to be congratulated on issuing a report which recommends a list of specific projects for the postwar con- struction period.
The Second Public Report, Zoning and the Master Plan issued by the Com- mittee on Civic Design and Develop- ment of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, ques- tions the validity of the belief that the New York Zoning Ordinance satis- factorily controls the development of the city and the distribution of popula- tion. The Report deals with the under- lying principles which should govern the relation between population density, land uses, and traffic patterns in New York. The Report aims to indicate means whereby zoning in correlation with the Master Plan may aid in arrest- ing and reversing the city's tendency toward physical deterioration.
Harland Bartholomew and Associates have issued four more of the Preliminary Reports of the series that will constitute the Comprehensive City Plan for Richmond, Virginia; No. 8, Transit Facilities; No. 9, Parks and Schools;
62
Planning and Civic Comment
No. 10, Proposed Civic Center and the City's Appearance; No. 11, A Capital Expenditure Program and Administra- tive Policy and Practice. Each of the Reports in the series will be submitted to the full Commission for consideration and, if necessary, approved in prelim- inary form. At the end of three years, when all reports are completed and all parts of the city plan have been studied, the plan will be adopted as a whole. During the course of this work, it may be found desirable to adopt certain parts of the plan in advance of completion of the full plan, but this will in no way impair final action or stultify the plan.
From the National Park Service two valuable publications have been re- ceived which should prove useful refer- ences. The National Monuments, Ari- zona, to Wyoming and Alaska, deals with each of the 84 national monuments and presents brief factual data with typical photographs. The material has been multilithed and only a small edition was processed. Information
Relating to the National Park System is published under date of June 30, 1944, and furnishes statistics on all the types of areas in the System as to date of establishment, area, and outstanding characteristics.
Charles B. Bennett, Director of Plan- ning oj the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, sends a new publication, Shoreline Development Study for the County of Los Angeles, California, which presents a comprehensive plan for development of the recreational and transportation facilities of the Santa Monica Bay Beaches^ — Playa del Rey to Palos Verdes. Consideration has been given to the coordination of the pro- posed facilities of each of the municipali- ties affected so that a balanced program may be achieved without regard for boundaries. One of the purposes of the publication is to awaken the general public to the deplorable condition of the beaches. The publication is beautifully illustrated with colored maps and well- chosen photographs.
IN MEMORIAM
Mrs. Helen Osborne Storrow, of Boston, Mass., former international Girl Scout leader, widow of James J. Storrow, died in New York on November 12, 1944, at the age of 80.
A valued member of the APCA since 1927, Mrs. Storrow had been an enthusiastic and generous sup- porter of its many activities, being the donor of a special fund to make civic publications available to school children.
Noted for her many civic interests, perhaps her most important civic contribution was to the State of Massachusetts, when she gave $1,000,000 to complete development of the Charles River Basin, a project begun by her husband. In 1930 she donated a city hall to Auburn, N. Y., in memory of her father, David Munson Osborne.
Storrowtown, Mass., a village of buildings actually used in Revolu- tionary and pre-Revolutionary days, was erected by Mrs. Storrow in Springfield, on the Eastern States Exposition Grounds.
Clarence A. Perry died September 6, 1944 at the age of 72. Mr. Perry contributed some notable studies to planning and community improve- ment literature. In 1909 he became connected with the Russell Sage Foundation, was associate director of the department of recreation in 1913 and retired in 1937. His best- known works are: The Rebuilding of Blighted Areas, Housing for the Machine Age and Neighborhood and
Community Planning. He was a staff member of the N. Y. Regional Plan Association and held many offices with organizations promoting civic improvement.
Col. Henry Matson Waite, deputy administrator of the PWA in 1933 and 1934 died in Washington, D. C. on September 1, at the age of 75. He was head of the war projects unit for the Bureau of the Budget. For many years, Col. Waite was a member of the APCA. He was first city manager of Dayton, O., and then Colonel of Engineers, Trans- portation Corps, U. S. Army. During the thirties, he was deputy administrator of the Federal Public Works Administration.
Morris L. Parrish of Philadelphia, a member of this Association since 1905, when it was the American Civic Association, died last summer at his home in Philadelphia. He was deeply interested in community planning and active in the City Parks Association and the Regional Planning Association.
As we go to press, word comes of the death of Mrs. Charlotte S. Ash- man, one of the most active mem- bers of the Greater Peoria Civic Association, during the last week of November. She had served as chairman of the City Plan Com- mission of Peoria.
64
Recent Publications
Compiled by KATHERINE McNAMARA, Librarian of the Departments of Land- scape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS. NEW YORK CHAPTER. COMMITTEE ON Civic DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT. Some basic redevelopment problems; second public report, zoning and master plan. New York, The Institute, May 25, 1944. 21 pages. Lithoprinted.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANNING OFFI- CIALS. Planning, 1944. Proceedings of the annual meeting held in Chicago, May 1-3, 1944. Chicago, The Society, 1944. 232 pages. Price $3.00 (free to members).
AMERICAN TRANSIT ASSOCIATION. Moving people in modern cities. New York, The Association, [1944]. 31 pages. Map, charts.
. Transit fact book; annual sum- mary of basic data and trends in the transit industry of the United States. New York, The Association, 1944. 44 pages. IIIus., tables, charts.
BOARDMAN, PHILIP. Patrick Geddes, maker of the future; with an introduc- tion by Lewis Mumford. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1944. 504 pages. IIIus., plan (folded), tables, ports. Price $5.00.
BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES. Post- war planning in Britain: unofficial post- war planning, 1939-1944. New York, The Services, 1944. 88 pages.
CHICAGO, ILL. PLAN COMMISSION. Land use in Chicago, volume two of the report of the Chicago land use survey, directed by the City Plan Commission and con- ducted by the Work Projects Adminis- tration. A project sponsored by the city of Chicago, Edward J. Kelly, mayor. Chicago, The Commission, [1943]. 479 pages. Lithoprinted. IIIus. on end papers, maps (part colored), charts. Price $2.00.
CONNECTICUT PUBLIC EXPENDITURE COUN- CIL, INC. Middletown: testing ground for Connecticut postwar planning. Hart- ford, The Council, [1944]. 32 pages. Chart.
CORNISH, VAUGHAN. The beauties of scenery; a geographical survey; with an introduction by F. J. Osborn; 3d ed. London, Frederick MuIIer Ltd., 1944. 128 pages. IIIus. Price 6s.
COUNCIL FOR EDUCATION IN APPRECIATION OF PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT. First an- nual report. London, The Council, 1944. 7 pages. Mimeographed.
FAWCETT, C. B. A residential
unit for Bickley,
town and country planning.
Kent, University of London Press Ltd.,
1944. 72 pages. Price 3s.
GREAT BRITAIN. CENTRAL HOUSING AD- VISORY COMMITTEE. PRIVATE ENTER- PRISE SUB-COMMITTEE. Private enter- prise housing; report. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 55 pages. Tables, chart. Price Is.
HANNAY, ANNIE M., comp. Land settle- ment; a list of references. Washington, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Library, June 1944. 167 pages. Mimeographed. (Library List no. 9.)
HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD. Proceedings of the twenty-third annual meeting, held ... in Chicago, Illinois, Novem- ber 27-30, 1943. Editors, Roy W. Crum, Fred Burggraf. Washington, The Board, 1943. 606 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, diagrs., cross sections, tables, cnarts. Price $3.50.
LUNDEN, SAMUEL E. Community develop- ment through an exposition for Los Angeles. Los Angeles, Calif., The Haynes Foundation, 1944. 42 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, plans, table, chart.
LIEPMANN, KATE K. The journey to work, its significance for industrial and community life; with a foreword by A. M. Carr-Saunders. Illustrated with tables and plans. London, Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1944. 206 pages. Maps (folded), tables. (Inter- national Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction.) Price 15s.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING OF- FICIALS. Housing yearbook, 1944. Chi- cago, The Association, 1944. 176 pages. Maps, tables. (Publication no. N19.) Price $3.00.
NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON HOUSING, INC. Neighborhood design and control: an analysis of the problems of planned sub- divisions. Henry S. Churchill, planning consultant, Roslyn Ittleson, research assistant. New York, The Committee, Aug. 1944. 39 pages. Tables. Price $1.00 (60 cents to members).
Recommendations for a hous- New York, 16 pages.
ing program and policy. The Committee, Aug. 1944.
Price 25 cents. . Your stake in community plan- ning. New York, The Committee, Oct. 1944. 27 pages. IIIus.
65
Planning and Civic Comment
Publication made possible by Field Foundation, Inc.
NATIONAL RECREATION ASSOCIATION. Community recreation buildings as war memorials; planning, financing, con- struction and operation of community recreation buildings. New York, The Association, 1944. 55 pages. IIIus., plans, elevations, tables. Price $1.00.
NEW YORK, N. Y., TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE AUTHORITY. Parking: N. Y. C, July 10, 1944. New York, The Authority, 1944. 19 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, cross sections.
NEW YORK (STATE). DEPT. OF COMMERCE. A handbook of map symbols. Albany, The Dept., 1944. 36 pages. IIIus.
ROYAL ACADEMY. PLANNING COMMITTEE. Road, rail and river in London; the Royal Academy Planning Committee's second report; with a foreword by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. London, Country Life Ltd., 1944. 30 pages. IIIus., plans, cross sections. Price 2s. 6d.
SCOTLAND. DEPT. OF HEALTH. SCOTTISH HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE. Plan- ning our new homes; report by the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee on the design, planning and furnishing of new houses. Publication prepared for the Committee by the Department of Health for Scotland. Edinburgh, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 96 pages. IIIus. (part colored), plans, cross sections, ele- vations (part colored), tables, charts. Price 3s.
TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ASSOCIA- TION. Ways and means of rebuilding, being a report of the London Conference of the Town and Country Planning Association, 1943, edited by Donald Tyerman. London, Faber and Faber Ltd., 1944. Ill pages. Price 8s. 6d.
U. S. BUREAU OF THE BUDGET. DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT. The National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a study of organization for planning the National Capital. [Wash- ington], The Bureau, Mar. 1944. 45 pages. Mimeographed.
U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS AJDMINISTRA- TION. Airport design. Washington, The Administration, Apr. 1, 1944. 74 pages. Lithoprinted. Plans, tables. Price 15 cents.
U. S. FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY. Report of proposed post-war public works: volume and status of the plan preparation of postwar public works proposed by state and local governments, prepared at the request of the Special Committee on Post-war Economic Policy and Plan-
ning, House of Representatives, by the Federal Works Agency in collaboration with the Bureau of the Census. [Wash- ington], The Agency, Sept. 1944. Un- paged. Mimeographed. Tables.
THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE. A sug- gested postwar planning program for smaller communities. Local survey pro- gram no. 2. Washington, The Institute, Apr. 25, 1944. 8 pages. Mimeographed.
ZACHRY, H. B., Co. Laredo rehoused; an explanation of the Laredo plan; a self- liquidating rehousing and improvement plan founded on the coordinated initia- tive of the citizens of Laredo, originated and offered by H. B. Zachry Co. Laredo, Texas, The Co., Sept. 1944. 59 pages. IIIus., plans, tables.
ZUCKER, PAUL, ed. New architecture and city planning; a symposium. New York, Philosophical Library, 1944. 694 pages. IIIus., plans, diagrs., cross sections. Price $10.00.
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGE- MENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACTS OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AND MARCH 3, 1933, OF PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT published quarterly, at Harrisburg, Pa., for October 1, 1944. Washington D. C. ss:
Before me, a Notary in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Dora A. Padgett, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that she is the Managing Edi- tor of the Planning and Civic Comment, and that the following is, to the best of her knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, manage- ment, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1933, embodied in section 537, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit:
1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor and business manager are: Publisher: American Planning and Civic Associa- tion and National Conference on State Parks, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.; Editors: Harlean James, Flavel Shurtleff, Charles G. Sauers, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.; Managing Editor: Dora A. Padgett. Business Manager: None.
2. That the owner is: American Planning and Civic Association and National Conference on State Parks, 901 Union Trust Building, Wasning- ton, D. C.
3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding I percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: (If there are none, so state.) None.
DORA A. PADGETT
Managing Editor
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of October, 1944.
REGINA C. McGivERN Notary Public, Washington, D. C. (My commission expires Feb. 14, 1949)
66
• PUBLISHERS OF •
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMEJ
AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC
NATIONAL CONFE1 STATE PAR
V. BROWN, Indiana
TRIE D, Cox, New Vork j, DAVIES, Arkansas IARL.ES A DETURK, Indiana
CONRAD L, WIRTIT, IHm<
Functional D agram of the- City Center of Plymouth, The civic and c mtral ' isiness area is located between the main station and ' : Hoe, with the historic buildings located immediately to the east, Am deans are kcenl'y interested in the re-planning of the much-bombed and historic Plymouth as we bear in mind that it was from this ;:;*•> that the "Mayflower" sailed in 1620 to es- tablish the new world. Further, this was the city which was the embodiment of i lie naval power upon which the greatness of Britain has been built and it is to be hoped that the new Professor Abercrombie and Mr. Watson will be carried int
Planning and Civic Comment
m
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page Review of Planning in 1944 1
Editorial Comment 13
Jackson Hole National Monument
The Issue on D. C. Redevelopment and Housing
Strictly Personal 16
APCA Statement to Taft Sub-Committee 17
Watch Service Report 23
Parks — Pictorial Section 27
State Park Notes 43
Constitutionality of D. C. Urban Redevelopment Bill 46
Board of Directors Meeting 55
Housing — The Essence of Good Planning 58
Recent Court Decisions 62
In Memoriam 65
Alfred Bettman Charles F. Consaul
Recent Publications .67
JANUARY 1945
FIRST QUARTER— JANUARY-MARCH
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Gvic Comment, State Recreation
Official Organ of: American Planning and Gvic Association, National Conference on State Parks
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS HENRY V. HUBBARD
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT JOHN IHLDER
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW GEORGE INGALLS
EDWARD M. BASSETT RAYMOND F. LEONARD
RICHARD E. BISHOP THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RUSSELL V. BLACK ROBERTS MANN
PAUL V. BROWN J. HORACE MCFARLAND
STRUTHERS BURT HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM KATHERINE MCNAMARA
GEORGE L. COLLINS HAROLD MERRILL
MARSHALL N. DANA MARVIN C. NICHOLS
S. R. DEBOER JOHN NOLEN, JR.
EARLE S. DRAPER F. A. PITKIN
NEWTON B. DRURY HUGH R. POMEROY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o ISABELLE F. STORY
L. C. GRAY L. DEMING TILTON
S. HERBERT HARE BEN H. THOMPSON
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY TOM WALLACE CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
$3.00 a Year
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at Harrisburg, Pa.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D.C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 11
January, 1945
No. 1
Planning Review of 1944
By G. HOLMES PERKINS, Acting Director of the Urban Development Division, National Housing Agency, with the assistance of R. R. ISAACS, and V. BRINGE*
During 1944 hopes of an early victory for the United Nations, though sobered by recent setbacks, still carried with them recognition that plans must be ready when peace comes. Among these were needed, plans to preserve the peace, to ease the exchange of products and ideas between Nations, to in- crease productivity and standards of Jiving throughout the world, to provide full employment and to expedite other programs based on social justice.
Emergency measures for the re- lief and rehabilitation of liberated peoples and for the reconstruction of liberated areas received the most pressing attention both from the international conferences and in- dividual governments. In Novem- ber 1943, UNRRA was created and during the year has been training a staff of 600 for work in Southeastern Europe and a smaller staff for else- where in Europe, assisting military authorities in relief operations, and operating refugee camps for as many as 50,000 Greeks and Yugo- slavs. Out of the 1943 Food Con- ference has deve oped, in 1944, a projected permanent Food and Agri- cultural Organization to carry on research, exchange services, and recommend policies for improving agricultural efficiency and raising nutritional standards throughout
the world. In London the AI ied Ministers of Education met to dis- cuss emergency measures for re- establishing educational services in the devastated allied countries.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
But chief among the year's meet- ings, concerned with problems be- yond the emergency, were the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations. Their task was to formulate pro- posals for the creation o an inter- national organization for the main- tenance of peace and security, without which all plans lor high levels of employment, and increas- ing productivity would, at the best, be insecure. The proposed Organiza- tion would seek to prevent the out- break of war by encouraging peace- ful adjustment of international dis- putes and by suppressing breaches of the peace by combined force if necessary. The outlines of a per- manent organization were sketched including a General Assembly of all member States, a Security Council of eleven States, an International Court of Justice, a permanent Sec- retariat, a Military Staff Committee, and an Economic and Social Coun- cil. The latter, acting unde: the authority of the General Assembly,
*Jacob Crane, who heads the Division, was in Europe during the preparation of this article at the request of the British, French and Italian Govern- ments, and furnished some of the materials for the section on National Planning Abroad.
1
Planning and Civic Comment
would coordinate the activities of such international organizations and agencies as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Labor Organization, the International Monetary Fund proposed and the International Bank for Reconstruction and De- velopment (at Brett in Woods), and possibly other specialized agencies in the fields of education, cultural cooperation, and health.
Several highly significant con- ferences preceded Dumbarton Oaks; these helped to lay the groundwork for these Conversations, and in themselves made important prog- ress on specific problems which contributed to the reaching of more general agreements. The Inter- national Labor Organization, meet- ing in Philadelphia in May, in its declaration of aims reaffirmed the principle that lasting peace must be based on social justice, declared that "poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere," and that maintenance within each Nation of high levels of employment and national income were matters of international concern. These same principles lay behind the work done at the July Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, N.H., where plans were drawn for the establishment of an International Monetary Fund and an Interna- tional Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The purposes of the Fund and Bank are to promote exchange stability, maintain orderly exchange arrangements among mem- bers, assist in establishing a mul- tilateral system o payments by the members and in eliminating foreign exchange restrictions which hamper
world trade. The Fund provides machinery for consultation and col- laboration on international mone- tary problems, is designed to facili- tate expansion and balanced growth of international trade; and to con- tribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of em- ployment and real income, and to the development of the productive resources of all members. The Bank, as a companion institute to the Fund, is designed to assist in the reconstruction and development of territories of members by facili- tating investment of capital for productive purposes; to promote private foreign investment by means of guarantees or participations in loans by private investors; to pro- mote the Jong-range balanced growth of international trade and to bring about a smooth transition from a war-time to a peace-time economy.
The development of international civil aviation in a safe and orderly manner and the establishment of air transport services on the basis of equality and sound and economic operation was the theme of the International Civil Aviation Con- ference held in Chicago by repre- sentatives of 54 Nations in Novem- ber. Thirty allied and neutral Na- tions signed an agreement granting to each the privilege of flying over the territory of the other signatories without landing and to land for non-profit purposes and to carry passengers, mail, and cargo taken on in or destined for the state which nationality the aircraft possesses. In another agreement, 21 of these Nations granted the further privi- lege of, taking on or putting down passengers, mail, and cargo, des-
Planning and Civic Comment
tined for or coming from territory of any other contracting State.
The International Business Con- ference at Rye, N. Y., of representa- tives of business from 52 Nations met to find satisfactory ways to * 'restore private enterprise to its proper place in national economies and to assure its greatest possible development and expansion."
NATIONAL PLANNING ABROAD
In each of the areas of Europe liberated by the advance of the Allied armies, there has almost im- mediately followed emergency re- construction and relief, but addi- tional plans were at the same time laid for the long-term rebuilding of the devastated cities and towns. In Russia great progress was made in carrying out the 1943 Plan of Re- habilitation; a Soviet report early this year said that more than a half million head of cattle had, at that time, been returned to liberated areas, nearly two million persons rehoused in permanent structures, thousands of miles of railroad lines restored and over a hundred stations built. Plans for the complete re- building of many cities and towns are already well advanced. For Leningrad, these plans go far beyond the mere restoration of prewar structures; at Stalingrad, the com- plete rebuilding of the city is con- templated on a most comprehensive and generous scale for an ultimate population of 800,000.
In England, also, the devastation of the war has presented an oppor- tunity for, as well as necessitated, extensive replanning and recon- struction. Many comprehensive lo- cal plans have been presented. The
County of London Plan (1943) was supplemented in 1944 by plans for the City and for the Greater London area covering 2500 square miles. The combined proposals call for the removal of 1,000,000 persons from the present London area and the development of a series of satellite towns separated by permanent green belts. These and other plans have served to spotlight such problems as the relocation of industry and populations and the public acquisi- tion of land, compensation for it, and the methods for its redevelop- ment. These problems have re- ceived thorough and expert study by the Royal Commissions and Ex- pert Committees, and out of long discussions has come one of the tools for the rebuilding of Britain, the Town and Country Planning Bill,1 passed by Parliament this November. The Bill provides for the acquisition and development of land for planning purposes; makes amendments to the laws relating to town and country planning; and provides for compensation payable in connection with land acquisition for public purposes by reference to 1939 prices. Two additional Hous- ing Acts also were passed providing respectively for the extension of the scope of housing subsidies and for the erection of 250,000 temporary houses.
The series of distinguished reports which are remembered by the names of their Chairmen — Beveridge, Scott, Barlow, Uthwatt, McNair, Nor- wood, Fleming, Dudler — were fol-
ipor abstract of the Town and Country Planning Bill and Government White Paper The Control of Land Use see Urban Development Division — Na- tional Housing Agency Group VII Abstracts of Selected Material on Postwar Housing and Urban Development.
Planning and Civic Comment
lowed by an era of government White Papers in 1943 and 1944 among which were Employment Policy, Control of Land Use, Na- tional Water Policy, Social Insur- ance, National Health Service, and Educational Reconstruction. Legis- lative or administrative action oc- curred only in a few instances, al- though there is constantly growing pressure for action. Two important measures have been passed: the Education Bill, which raises the school-leaving age and provides for the ultimate reorganization of the State system; and the above men- tioned Town and Country Planning Bill.
Considerable progress in planning and housing legislation can be found in each of the Dominions. The Australian Government has re- ceived the final report1 of the Com- monwealth Housing Commission which recommended creation of a Commonwealth Planning Authority and submitted the draft of a Model Housing Act. In Canada, a De- partment of Reconstruction was formed as the Central Planning Agency of the Government to deal with reemployment, reconversion of industry, and to coordinate the plans of the separate departments. The National Housing Act,2 passed in August, provides loans at low interest rates and long amortization rates (which may be extended an additional ten years in areas pro- tected by adequate planning and zoning) and includes plans for low- cost housing and slum clearance to improve housing conditions and to
ipor abstract of this report see UDD-NHA Group IX Abstracts.
*For abstract of National Housing Act see UDD-NHA Group VIII Abstracts.
stimulate employment in the first postwar years. Other Canadian legislation extends benefits to vet- erans; for assistance to large families under the Family Allowance Act; and centralizes all welfare measures in the Department of Health and Welfare. In the Union of South Africa, the Housing Commission authorized the expenditure of four million pounds before June 1945, for the building of sub-economic homes and individual cities, also planned extensive housing projects in the immediate postwar period. In New Zealand, a Cabinet Committee and an Interdepartmental Committee, with subcommittees representing government and private interests, were already at work on studies of various postwar problems; rehabili- tation and social security machinery was strengthened and extended, family allowance liberalized ; housing was brought under a reorganized Department of Works; and a Ser- vice Man's Settlement and Land Sales Act was passed.
In India, the responsibility for postwar planning was lodged by the Government in a new Department of Planning and Development. Re- ports have already been published on civil aviation, transport, tele- communications, education, and ag- riculture, and are in preparation on public health, hydro-electric devel- opment and scientific research. The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research aimed to increase agricul- tural production 50 percent in ten years and 100 percent in 15 years.
Although still in the throes of reorganization and confronted with pressing emergency problems, France established the Ministry of Recon-
Planning and Civic Comment
struction and Urbanism in Novem- ber to coordinate planning and re- construction.
The Inter-American Development Commission, which met in New York in May, did much to assist the various American countries in de- veloping their own plans. Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Ar- gentina either set up new divisions of economic expansion, as in Brazil, or made similar plans for industrial- ization and improvement of agri- culture, and the colonization of new areas such as the northern provinces in Chile. Colombia's Institute Fo- mento Industrial continued to foster the development of its natural re- sources. It is also significant that in nearly all of these same countries, plans have been made for a large- scale attack on the housing problem; in Argentina 50 million pesos were set aside to study the housing prob- lem; Panama set up a Banco de Urbanizacion y Rehabilitacion; Puerto Rico provided funds for a large housing program.
NATIONAL PLANNING U. S. A.
Postwar planning in 1944 became recognized as a necessity if the ad- vantages gained by military vic- tories were to be followed up when peace returns. Progress can, how- ever, be better measured in height- ened public interest and under- standing rather than in actual legislative accomplishment. That full employment is to be the chief domestic goal became evident in the planks of both political parties, in the pronouncements of business and labor, and in Congressional debates.
Planning at the Federal level of
government continues to be pri- marily concerned with the war. The war agencies, such as WPB, War and Navy Departments, WMC, FEA, ODT, OES, WSA, and OPA have effectively continued their efforts toward mobilizing the resources of the country in the prosecution of the war. An increasing amount of time, however, has been found to con- sider the problems associated with the transition from war to peace, the reconversion of industry, and the creation of conditions favorable to the maintenance of full employ- ment and a high level of income.
The Congress had under con- sideration a number of measures aimed at the solution of transitional and reconversion problems. A basis for discussion was laid by such re- ports as that on War and Postwar Adjustment Policies by Baruch and Hancock. Some progress was made by the passage of the War Mobiliza- tion and Reconversion Act of 1944 which created an over-all office to coordinate war-mobilization and re- conversion. Title V of this Act authorized, through the Federal Works Agency, loans without in- terest to municipalities for the plan- ning of public works, but in the hectic last days of the 78th Congress the appropriation for this purpose was eliminated from the Deficiency Bill. Providing funds become avail- able, this act could well become one of the most influential ever passed for the encouragement of local plan- ning, especially if the administrative regulations of the FWA are such as to encourage overall planning in addition to the blue-printing of specific projects. Two other meas- ures also encourage local planning.
Planning and Civic Comment
The Federal Aid Highway Bill authorizes $500,000,000 per year for the first three years after the war and provides that 1>£ percent may be allocated for planning and en- gineering. Local governments are particularly affected because for the first time assistance is given to municipalities for financing high- ways within urban areas, and the Act provides that the Public Roads Administiation may establish regu- lations as to the relation of the new roads to over-all planning and may define, in collaboration with State Highway Commissions, urban areas in which planning must be under- taken before approval of any proj- ects. Following instructions of the Congress, the CAA submitted a National Airport Plan and is already giving planning advice to munici- palities on airport location and design.
Creation by Congress of the Office of War Mobilization and Recon- version fixed immediate respon- sibility for developing programs for the transition period in that office. Studies by this Office in surplus war property administration, reemploy- ment, and contract termination were supplemented by studies and pro- posals directed toward mobilizing the Nation more completely for the war job still ahead and easing the transition to peace-time conditions. Under more effective mobilization, recommendations called for war- time tightening and extension of manpower, price, and labor controls. Incentive taxation to encourage and expand enterprise, a liberalization of unemp oyment compensation, at- tention to the reestablishment of small business after the war, liber-
alized financing provisions for hous- ing, additional measures for creating a public works reserve, and financing of international trade were some of the large number of planks in the reconversion platform.
The Congress set up a Surplus Property Board to dispose of such property as the various government agencies found to be in excess of war needs; priority for the acquisi- tion of this surplus material was to be given to Federal agencies and to State and local governments. An- other measure to provide for the orderly reconversion to a peace-time economy was the Contract Settle- ment Act of 1944 which provided the machinery for prompt, efficient and equitable termination of war con- tracts.
Following agreement by Gover- nors of the States in the Missouri Valley area, President Roosevelt in a special message to Congress, on September 21, urged early considera- tion of legislation to develop the Missouri, Arkansas and Columbia River Valleys by means of regional agencies similar to the TVA. Al- though no such agencies were created, authorization of $200,000,- 000 each was given by Congress to the Corps oi Engineers of the Army, and the Bureau of Reclamation for a joint project in power development, stream regulation, flood control, irrigation and other purposes in the Missouri Valley. It is anticipated that the question of development by means of a regional agency will be reviewed early in the next session of Congress. The St. Lawrence Water- way proposal continued on its stormy course, and although there was an apparent new interest shown
Planning and Civic Comment
by Congress, the proposal failed of adoption.
The Colmer (House) and George (Senate) Committees on Postwar Economic Policy and Planning were active in conducting hearings on measures having a bearing on recon- version and the return to a civilian economy. There was a general tendency in Congress during 1944, however, to withhold substantial subsidies for state and local planning and public works pending more adequate information on the need for such funds. Subcommittees were appointed to study special problems; among these were the Taft Sub- committee o the George Committee which conducted hearings on Federal postwar housing policy. At Senator Taft's request the National Hous- ing Agency presented research find- ings and recommendations on meth- ods of meeting the postwar housing need. Earlier in the year Senator Kilgore had introduced a bill to provide for technical research and studies in housing under the direc- tion of the NHA.
The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, a standing com- mittee composed of members of the House Ways and Means Committee, and th Senate Finance Committee, has taken an active role in investi- gating and developing postwar tax proposals. The cooperation of the Committee staff and the staff of the Treasury in the continuing work on the tax problems of the transition and postwar period holds promise for improved legislative-executive re- lations in this field.
Following the introduction of a bill in 1943, a Senate Resolution authorized a study by the Kilgore
Subcommittee of the Military Affairs Committee of means of insuring the widest possible application of the scientific and technical advances re- sulting from war-time research and of providing government aid in initiating and furthering additional research and development. It is likely that a bill will be introduced in 1945 recommending the crea ion of a National Science Foundation to administer the Act; the Foundation would be empowered to grant non- exclusive licenses for the use of inventions and patents arising from Federally-financed research.
The year-end report of the Murray Subcommittee to the Com- mittee on Military Affairs reviewed reconversion legislation and con- cluded that "measured against the background of our economic needs, the postwar laws that have been enacted add up to very little." A bill "The Full Employment Act of 1945" will be introduced. Its sig- nificance lies in the fact that the Government would assume for the first time a major responsibility in the fight for full employment. The report states that "on the one hand, the Government must do everything in its power to stimulate increased opportunities for employment in private enterprise. This is the major front. On the other hand, to the extent that private enterprise can- not by itself assure full employment, the Government must take such measures as may be necessary to fill the gap."
The Congress has not yet filled the gap left by the demise of the NRPB as an over-all planning and coordinating agency in the executive branch but numerous Federal agen-
Planning and Civic Comment
cies continued to discharge their responsibilities for planning for the reconversion and postwar period in separate fields.
The Bureau of the Budget at the request of the President and later by the War Mobilization and Re- conversion Act of 1944 began de- velopment of programs and poli- cies on reconversion and transition subjects. The Bureau undertook to gather and coordinate the basic statistics and facts needed to formu- late national policy during and after the reconversion period through an Interdepartmental Committee on Reconversion Statistics. The con- tributions of the Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Agriculture will bulk large in the total program. The President recommended to the Congress in his 1945 Budge mes- sage that a specific appropriation be made to continue this valuable work.
Many private organizations con- tinued planning activities on sub- jects of national importance during 1944. The National Planning Asso- ciation's committees representative of industry, business and labor issued a Joint Statement on Social Security among other significant contributions to thinking on post- war problems. The Committee for Economic Development continued and expanded its stimulation of planning in hundreds of local com- munities and issued a number of substantial research reports on tran- sition and longer-term problems, en- gaging a research staff of well-known economists for this purpose.
The Twentieth Century Fund published its report on American Housing and announced that an additional study in the Stuart
Chase series entitled Democracy Under Pressure had been completed and would be published in January of 1945.
The labor organizations at their conventions and through the re- search done by their staffs have assisted in charting the directions of national policy. Important pro- posals for urban redevelopment were advanced by the Urban Land Institute and the National Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards; the National Committee on Housing prepared Recommendations for a Housing Program and Policy.* These many organizations and proposals reflect the rising tide of popular in- terest in the work of planning for postwar living.
STATE PLANNING State and local planning encoun- tered mounting obstacles due to the constantly growing shortage of qual- ified planning personnel. About one- fifth of the membership of the American Institute of Planners and a similar proportion of all other planners were in the armed forces by the end of the year; in addition, no new recruits were coming from the schools and colleges. Yet, in spite of this, new commissions were created and many of those estab- lished during 1943 were building up staffs, though often at the expense of other commissions. From the long-range viewpoint of training additional planners, there is little to note in the way of either addi-
*EDITOR'S NOTE. — A real contribution to urban- redevelopment thinking was made by the late Alfred Bettman, who drew the Federal Bill introduced into the 78th Congress by Senator Thomas and the District of Columbia Bill introduced into the 78th and 79th Congresses by Senator Capper. See also Mr. Bettman's article on Urban Redevelopment Legislation in the 1944 AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ANNUAL.
Planning and Civic Comment
tional schools or changes in the curricula offered. An increasing interest in planning was shown at the University of Wisconsin where an interdepartmental committee is considering proposals for the train- ing of planners. An interesting de- velopment in training is the ex- periment undertaken by the Na- tional Housing Agency and Harvard University which attempts to com- bine inservice training with the advantages of uninterrupted study at the University.
Two important surveys have been made on planning activity, one by The American City, and a second by the FWA and the Bureau of the Budget, the latter for the House Special Committee on Postwar Eco- nomic Policy and Planning. It may be interesting to note that in the preparation of postwar plans it is only in the larger cities of over 50,000 possessing a planning com- mission with an adequate budget that the planning is done by the commission; only in these larger cities did housing and urban re- development form an important part of the postwar effort. In the smaller cities, preparation of post- war public works plans was more often in the hands of the city en- gineers than in those of all other departments combined. From these surveys it became apparent that planning activity was heavily con- centrated in a few localities; for instance, two-thirds of the completed planning preparation was reported in five States (New York, Califor- nia, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio) and about two-fifths of all works in the completed stage of planned prep- aration was concentrated in five
cities — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia. Although about half the cities were setting aside reserves, the other half reported a lack of authority or funds for blue-printing plans now in the preliminary stage; 27 States and 53 cities of over 100,000 population were among 689 governmental units which were in this predicament. Under existing laws many govern- ments cannot secure the funds until an appropriation has been made or bonds have been sold to finance the actual construction. Until these conditions are relieved by legisla- tion, an adequate volume of needed public works cannot be made ready. In only four States, New York, California, Michigan and New Jer- sey, did legislation authorize the provision of State funds to aid local governments in financing the prep- aration of plans. Among existing completed plans, many are for projects planned before or shortly after the war began but deferred because of war-time shortages. Both The American City and the FWA reports indicate that local govern- ments believe there is urgent need for the Federal Government to clarify further its policy with regard to providing planning assistance.
A number of States have in- creased their aid to local planning. Funds were made available in Cali- fornia where $7,000,000 is provided on a matching basis to cities and counties for preparation of plans; in Connecticut the State Postwar Plan- ning Board has urged an appro- priation of $1,000,000 for matching grants to municipalities and State agencies for planning; in Michigan $5,000,000 was appropriated again
Planning and Civic Comment
on a matching basis, to assist in the preparation of plans and specifica- tions for improvements in cities, villages, counties, townships and school districts, and in addition it provided $250,000 for local use in the design of airports; in Maryland $500,000 was made available by the State as a grant to local governments for one-half the cost of preliminary studies, plans and specifications for public works projects. Many States assisted local planning commissions through technical assistance as in Louisiana, Virginia, Wisconsin, New York and others.
Discussion of the problems of urbanredevelopmentcontinuedlively throughout the year although little new legislation has appeared on the books. However, a number of States were actively considering the passage of legislation, as in the case of California, or in Massachusetts where a new bill will be submitted to the next legislature. A great deal of the pressure for planning in California and urban redevelopment came from such citizen groups as the Town Hall in Los Angeles and the studies of its planning section, and the Haynes Foundation.
Although the state and local plan- ning commissions were more con- cerned with specific projects of a public works nature than was the Federal government, they have been very much interested in the economic problems of their localities and particularly in employment and postwar opportunities for their war-swollen populations. Among the States whose planning com- missions have published reports on postwar employment are Alabama, California, Maryland, South Caro-
lina and Tennessee, and New Jersey has established a Department of Economic Development which in- cludes divisions of planning and en- gineering, municipal aid, commerce, and veterans' services.
A number of States have con- cerned themselves with the problem of zoning, and it is significant that the Council of State Governments is prepared to offer model legislation for subdivision regulation to the legislatures meeting this year, which will attempt to give municipalities and counties the power to control the subdivision of land in urban areas and in the undeveloped land surrounding the cities. Although such powers are possessed by some cities and counties, the recognition of this as a potentially serious and nationwide problem when building is resumed after the war is note- worthy.
LOCAL PLANNING
In spite of the handicap of lack of personnel, and with the necessity of putting the war first in all planning activities, great strides have been made by local commissions in plan- ning for solution of postwar prob- lems. In the past three years the total budgets of the planning com- missions in the country as a whole have been very nearly doubled, al- though they do not have available the large WPA funds which were to be had before the war. The additional appropriations were a clear recognition of the cities' under- standing of the need for planning. Whether this interest will be sus- tained after the war remains a se- rious question; perhaps much will depend upon the way in which
10
Planning and Civic Comment
planning is done and upon the amount of public participation that is encouraged by the technicians and planning commissions. With- out such active participation by the public there is little reason to assume that it will show continued interest or understanding once the pressure of reconversion from war to peace is accomplished.
Many new municipal planning commissions were set up. Among these was the Civic Planning Com- mission in Rochester, N. Y., which requested $250,000 for planning in 1945, half of which it hoped to ob- tain from the State on a matching basis. Austin, Texas, appointed a new City Plan Commission with a budget of $14,000; Providence, Rhode Island, adopted an ordinance creating a new Commission; Lexing- ton, Kentucky, set up a quasi- official Lexington Area Planning Council; a Committee was set up in Milwaukee with representatives from each of the suburbs and the City of Milwaukee for the co- ordination of postwar plans for employment and public works; a similar agency was recommended by the Texas Postwar Economic Planning Commission to the Dallas County Commissioners; Oakland appointed a Postwar Planning Com- mittee which will study such prob- lems as aviation, agriculture, educa- tion, housing, land use, transporta- tion, reemployment, regional trade, social welfare, recreation and public works. In Cincinnati a Citizens' Planning Association was organ- ized, in addition to the new Cin- cinnati Metropolitan Planning Com- mittee, both of which were intended to help promote and coordinate the
planning activities of the metropoli- tan area. The Cincinnati Plan Commission has created a Master Plan Division with a budget of about $100,000 which has allowed them to greatly expand their staff in the hope of producing a revised master plan within two years.*
An offer of $50,000 by the local transit company with the proviso that it be matched by other con- tributions was successful in getting planning off to a good start in San Antonio, Texas and Bexar County with fine citizen support. An out- standing attempt to plan with maximum participation of citizens was the Louisville Area Develop- ment Association which was orig- inally financed cooperatively by the local governments, business, and labor unions. These efforts have so far resulted in recommendations for traffic improvements, changes in the central business district, flood wall protection, and a program for a housing market analysis with NHA assistance.
A Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, covering the three counties in the Denver metropolitan area, was organized to draw up ade- quate building codes, zoning and subdivision regulations to protect the future of the area. Los Angeles was also concerned with similar problems and the Zoning Com- mission submitted a comprehensive zoning plan designed to tighten controls over undeveloped areas within the city, to prevent promis- cuous subdividing, to assure open
*EpiTcm's NOTE. — In Cleveland, the Postwar Planning Council was organized and in Detroit the Citizens Housing and Planning Council was re- organized. In Washington, the American Planning and Civic Association s Committee of 100 on the Federal City was enlarged and reorganized.
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Planning and Civic Comment
spaces, and to hold in agricultural use the land best suited to this pur- pose, and to rezone large areas of commercial and industrial land for residential use.
In many of the cities there has been great activity on problems of redevelopment. Many of the larger cities have studied the possibilities of clearing and redeveloping specific blighted areas under existing or proposed legislation. Only in the case of Stuyvesant Town has an actual project been officially ap- proved. Private enterprise groups have made interesting proposals for specific sites in most o, the larger cities. These proposals have nor- mally been made to the Mayor who has passed them on to the Planning Commission for study and recom- mendation.
It appears, however, that without aid from the States or Federal Government no sizeable amount of redevelopment can be undertaken because without such aid the as- sembling and clearing of blighted areas results in such high costs that redevelopment for housing purposes cannot proceed except for the higher income groups, and even then at undesirably high densities. The market, therefore, is limited which means that the amount of rede- velopment that could be under- taken is equally small. The pro- posals have, however, crystallized a great deal of the thinking that has been done on the subject and may prove to be the driving force behind a campaign for state and Federal aid.
The cities in general have been most interested in two phases of planning: (1) public works; (2) em- ployment. Besides the numerous
state studies which have been made on employment, cities have also submitted during the past year well considered, thoroughly analyzed re- ports on employment problems. Among these were the CED reports in Louisville and Seattle; New York Regional Plan economic studies estimate that there will be a need for 850,000 new jobs in 1946; Los Angeles recognized the threat of serious unemployment because of the suddenness of its industrial growth, for although before the war only 18 percent of the population was employed in industry there are at the present time 370,000 aircraft and shipbuilding workers alone; the Syracuse-Onondaga Postwar Plan- ning Council issued important re- ports including Housing Economics, Community Facilities, The Central District, Education, Land Use, Em- ployment, Fiscal Planning; Rich- mond, Va., has included in its series of reports: a Capital Expenditure Program, Transit Facilities, Hous- ing Conditions and Policies, Land Use and Zoning, Population.
Generally, 1944 saw much public enthusiasm for local planning but a rather spotty performance; many cities after a good start settled down to the slower but less spectacular phases of planning. This naturally resulted in fewer outstanding new reports. Shelves of public works were given greater attention though too often without reference to over- all plans; yet at the same time the increasingly active participation of citizen groups in local planning gave promise for better understand- ing and acceptance of the final plans and consequently promise of more effective results.
12
EDITORIALS
Jackson Hole National Monument Still Stands!
President Roosevelt gave the Barrett Bill to abolish Jackson Hole National Monument a pocket veto and issued a Memorandum of Dis- approval which so well set forth the fundamental issues that we are publishing it in the 1944 AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ANNUAL (page 28). A new Barrett Bill has been introduced into the 79th Congress (See Watch Service Report, p. 24).
That the sentiment in Jackson Hole is not unanimous, as claimed by the little coterie who fought the Monument, is indicated by a tele- gram sent to Senator Carl A. Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys by nine business men of Jackson, who stated that they considered the Bar- rett Bill against their best interests and claimed that it would be dan- gerous to remove the protection offered to the area by the Jackson Hole National Monument, even pending more comprehensive legis- lation by Congress. The President's veto met with their approbation.
And now into the 79th Congress, Chairman Peterson of the House Committee on Public Lands has re- introduced his bill— H. R. 1292— which provides for payments in lieu of taxes to the State of Wyoming for the benefit of Teton County and which confirms the announced policy of the Secretary of the Interior to protect the rights of ranchers in and near the Monument.
The passage of the Peterson Bill by Congress should settle the "Jack-
son Hole controversy" once and for all. It corrects any possible hard- ships to local citizens and leaves the Monument intact as it should be.
Probably more misstatements and innuendos were circulated about Jackson Hole than in any contro- versy within our memory. Appeals were made to certain current preju- dices, pointing to Jackson Hole as a case in point. It happened that a good many credulous editors ac- cepted these statements at their face value and their faces must have been red if they ever took the trouble to learn the facts. Oneso-called "canned editorial" based on a series of misstatements was widely circulated and used in papers subscribing to the service without the slightest investi- gation on the part of the local edi- tors. Some editors deplored the turning over of 222,000 acres of pri- vate land to public uses!
The readers of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT know that less than 50,000 acres of privately owned land were involved and that these were in scattered holdings within the boundaries established for the public lands. They know that some 33,000 acres of these scattered private hold- ings were acquired by Mr. John D. Rockefeller from willing sellers to donate to the people of the United States under the custody of the National Park Service. They know that 170,000 odd acres were already in Federal ownership, always had been in Federal ownership, and that the Presidential Proclamation set-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ting up the Monument merely trans- ferred the land from other categories, such as national forests or public domain, to the status of national monument.
Pushed to the last resort, when faced with the facts, some local citi- zens declared that they were not in fact opposed to the preservation of the area, but they did not like the way it was done. Since the private lands had been acquired over a period of 17 or 18 years and since the Monument was set up in a per- fectly legal fashion by a Presidential Proclamation specifically authorized by Congress and used more than 80 times by Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt on and once tested by a favorable Supreme Court decision, this seems to us a flimsy subterfuge.
It seems to us that the Peterson Bill removes all valid claims of hard- ship by the State and its citizens and at the same time serves the public good by preserving, under re- sponsible administration, the Jack- son Hole National Monument, which
we hope will be enjoyed for genera- tions to come by the people of the United States at large as well as by the citizens of Wyoming.
The legality of the President's proclamation is further confirmed by reason of the Memorandum handed down by Judge Blake Kennedy on February 10, 1945 in the U. S. District Court. The State of Wyo- ming had brought an injunction suit against Paul R. Franke, an appoint- ee of the Department of the In- terior, to restrain him from admin- istering the Monument on the ground that certain hardships would be suffered by the State. Judge Ken- nedy admitted hardship and sub- stantial injustice "if the Executive Department carries out its threat- ened program," but maintained that Congress had delegated the authority to the President to act and that it was in the power of Con- gress to correct any injustices. The Court, therefore, found for the de- fendant (Paul R. Franke).
The Issue in D. C. Redevelopment and
Housing
Quite suddenly hearings were called for February 26, 27 and 28 on the McCarran Bill (S 13) to provide for the abolition of the National Capital Housing Authority and the assignment of its functions to a District of Columbia Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which would be charged with the dual responsi- bility for managing existing public housing and erecting any new public housing which might be authorized as well as with the duty of assem-
bling and redisposing of land in the redevelopment districts. On the first day of the hearing, the sub- committee of the Senate District of Columbia Committee, composed of Senators McCarran, Tydings, Briggs, Hoey, Capper, Burton and Saltonstall, decided to include in the hearings the Capper Bill (S 610) to establish a D. C. Redevelopment Land Agency. The amended Capper Bill had only been introduced on February 22. It was an improve-
14
Planning and Civic Comment
ment on the Capper Bill of the 78th Congress. It was drawn by the late Alfred Bettman, a recognized au- thority on the law of planning and zoning, and has been carefully con- sidered and accepted by the Na- tional Capital Park and Planning Commission. The Bureau of the Budget and the District Commis- sioners have cooperated in the drafting of the bill and given it ap- proval. The McCarran Bill of the 79th Congress is a revised combina- tion of the Tydings and McCarran Bills of the last session. It has in it many pages copied from the Capper Bill. So far so good. But, instead of the carefully drawn consistent measure whicjj is the Capper Bill, it is carelessly pieced together in order to meet the demands of the Home Builders and others who de- sire to take over the field of public housing.
Because of the insistent demand, additional hearings were held on March 1 and on this day Mr. Charles H. Tompkins testified for the Committee of 100 on the Federal City and the American Planning and Civic Association pre- sented a statement in favor of the Capper Bill from the national point of view. Hearings were held March 6.
So many of the witnesses agreed on the five-man unsalaried board for the Land Agency that it seems likely that whatever bill is reported out of the Senate sub-committee will contain this provision which should make possible the selection of members of ability and experience. Both bills accord to the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission and to the District Com- missioners their approved functions.
There still remain two sharp issues. Many of the witnesses were convinced that a Land Agency, charged with the responsibility of purchasing by condemnation or otherwise of properties in extensive redevelopment districts and the sale or lease of such properties for uses recommended and approved by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Dis- trict Commissioners, will not be an appropriate agency to exercise the functions of the National Capital Housing Authority, charged with the responsibility of building and managing public housing. The Na- tional Capital Housing Agency is at present a going concern which is ad- ministering large properties. It is a part of a nation-wide set-up and should not be merged into a land agency which will assemble property and pass it on by sale or lease to other agencies or private enterprise.
It is the contention of the Ameri- can Planning and Civic Association that Urban Redevelopment, for which there is a widespread demand in almost every city in the United States, should not be handicapped by combining it with incompatible functions, and, particularly, that it should not be involved in all the con- troversial housing issues which are arousing so much discussion and heat. The Capper Bill provides con- sistent machinery for redevelop- ment. It accepts but does not pre- scribe the present housing set-up. Instead of using the Redevelopment Bill as a club to kill public housing, we trust that the subcommittee will report a bill containing the essen- tial provisions now embodied in the Capper Bill (S 610).
15
Strictly Personal
G. Holmes Perkins, who has been Acting Director of the Urban De- velopment Division of the National Housing Agency, has been appointed Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Chairman of the Department of Regional Plan- ning at Harvard University. It will be recalled that this chair was held by Henry Vincent Hubbard from 1929-1941 and by Dr. John M. Gaus in 1942—3, away on leave from the University of Wisconsin. One of the significant products of Dr. Gaus's year at Harvard was the Re- port on The Education of Planners, which was reviewed in the October, 1943 PLANNING AND Civic COM- MENT. After a vacancy of more than a year, the appointment of Mr. Per- kins to the Chair of Regional Plan- ning points to a definite revival of planning courses at Harvard, and, let us hope, to the resumption of the "Harvard City Planning Studies" which in the years 1930-38 con- stituted such an important part of planning thought and literature in the United States. The eyes of the planning world will be on the plan- ning courses offered and on the future planners who may emerge from Harvard.
Linnard, Trustee for the Great Lakes Region. All new officers as- sumed office in January, 1945.
At the recent election of officers of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Markley Stevenson was elected President, Leon Zach, Secre- tary, Justin R. Hartzog, Trustee for the New England Region, Prentiss French, Trustee for the South- eastern Region and Lawrence G.
Jacob L. Crane has just returned from a two-month's stay in England advising on housing, urban de- velopment, and town planning at the request of the British govern- ment. Mr. Crane spoke before a large Washington audience on Feb- ruary 19 on "Why the Nation's Capital Should Lead the Way in Planning and Housing."
Louis P. Croft, formerly a land- scape architect with the National Park Service, who went to the Philippine Islands in 1940 as ad- viser to the late President Manuel Quezon in city planning, has been an internee with his wife and young daughter for the past 37 months at Santo Tomas, Manila. He has been released and is reported well. He created a long range development plan for Manila and is now planning the reconstruction of the war-bat- tered city.
Roland Wank has left TVA for private architectural practice in Detroit. He has been connected with TVA as chief architect since
1933.
^
Coleman W. Roberts has been named the "Man of the Year" in Charlotte, N. C. He has been active in promoting planning in Charlotte.
16
APCA Statement to Taft Sub-Committee
January 17, 1945
Honorable Robert Taft, Chairman, Sub-committee on Housing and Ur- ban Redevelopment, Special Sen- ate Committee,
Postwar Economic Policy and Plan- ning,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The American Planning and Civic Association is very glad to respond to your invitation to set forth before your sub-committee its ideas on the subjects listed in your letter. For- tunately, the Association has re- cently held a board meeting at which many of these problems were dis- cussed.
1. Concerning the nature of the permanent Federal administrative organization of the housing agencies, we submit that the best first move of Congress would be to confirm the ex- isting arrangement, brought about by Executive Order, which will automatically expire six months after the emergency. No doubt the organization set-up can be improved and we shall have some suggestions along that line; but we predict that it will not be easy to secure sufficient unanimity of opinion to bring about drastic changes in time to permit continuous planning and functioning of the Federal Government in the housing field. We, therefore, ad- vocate immediate action to make sure of continuity of service and policy. Modifications can be worked out as they are agreed upon by hous- ing officials and public opinion. In-
deed, Congress may wish to specify that the National Housing Agency, after adequate surveys, make definite recommendations to Congress for improvements in the handling of housing by the Federal Government. Perhaps some of the agencies may prefer to operate independently, but, from the point of view of the public good, it would seem that the consolidation, while preserving a large degree of autonomy in the component units, has already ac- complished some of the desired ob- jectives, and, with further expe- rience, can iron out overlaps and supply omissions.
2. Most authorities are agreed that the 400,000 odd temporary housing units, at least in their pres- ent sub-standard condition, should not be used for permanent postwar housing. This would seem to be the intent of Congress. But it seems to us that sufficient discretion should be given NHA to utilize them during a transition period and to prevent all from being put on the market at one time. We look with favor, also, on the experiments and proposals of the FPHA to reuse the materials, so far as possible, in permanent build- ings for other types of utility. We are also impressed with the various proposals of FPHA for salvaging the demountable dwellings.
The disposal of war housing in- volves a number of considerations dependent in part on conditions which cannot be predicted accurately at this time; but, in the main, the various permanent housing units erected under various agencies can
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Planning and Civic Comment
probably make their best contribu- tion to postwar housing if they are turned over to such local housing authorities as desire to acquire them and use them for permanent low- rent housing. The Government should retire from the ownership and management of projects built to command high rentals. But the sooner the diverse ownership and operation of housing within the Federal Government is either con- solidated or turned back to local communities, the better. We favor the local community whenever it is able and willing to take over.
3. The Government's activities in the field of housing should be such as to foster the revival of the home- building industry. We all look for- ward to the time when there shall be abundant building materials and labor so that private enterprise can proceed to supply the market with an adequate number of dwellings to meet the needs of different income groups but we think that priorities and price controls will have to be re- laxed gradually if we are to avoid unduly high prices and other ex- cesses of scarcity.
4. As to the role of the Federal Government in future public hous- ing, an excellent start has been made in developing the three principal types of Government service — the FHA, with its insured loans for pri- vate lending institutions; the Fed- eral Home Loan Bank Administra- tion which provides a national credit reserve through the FHL Bank Sys- tem, insures savings of investors in home financing institutions through the Federal Savings and Loan In- surance Corporation, and super- vises the Home Owners Loan Cor-
poration, and the Federal Public Housing Authority. The first two have had a profound effect on sta- bilizing home loans and in reducing the number of loans falling due every few years in favor of loans which can be amortized monthly until paid. The FPHA has, very properly, been responsible for the creation of local housing authorities in cities, States and counties. The 130,000 public housing units provided by the 400 local housing authorities has pro- vided a basis for further study which is now being conducted by the FPHA. Naturally, the pioneer nature of the job, and more recently the defense and war pressures, have prevented the progress which would otherwise have been made in low-cost housing, but there is every evidence that with better coordination with local plans and planning commissions, with the use of extensive urban redevelop- ment programs, and other planning aids, the public housing of the post- war period can be a city-wide asset as a part of a comprehensive city plan in addition to furnishing low- rent housing. We believe, too, that experience will bring about more economical building and operation. Therefore, we recommend progres- sive greater unification of Federal agencies dealing with housing and greater conformity with local city and metropolitan plans.
5. No doubt further advances can be made in stimulating sound pri- vate credit aids, but we are inclined to think that further development under the two groups of Federal agencies — the FHA and the HLB group will stimulate the use of pri- vate capital on terms which are fair to builders and owners. Certainly
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Planning and Civic Comment
we should never wish to revert to the pre-depression loose methods of financing by which so many inno- cent buyers of homes were sacri- ficed. Some of them, no doubt, were induced to overbid their own re- sources; but even with those who seemed to have a fair chance of meeting their obligations, there were far too many obstacles and far too many charges loaded onto buyers of low-priced homes. However, the Association has never favored com- plete or partial tax remission by local authorities in order to promote building because it is an indefinite subsidy difficult to estimate with precision.
6. We recommend that all Fed- eral housing credits be handled through the NHA. Probably the defense and war pressures thoroughly justified the different methods used for building or financing housing. In the postwar period, all Federal housing credit activities should be brought into the one organization, thereby eliminating duplications and inconsistent policies. In the end, the collective specialized experience should produce steadily improved methods for home financing. No doubt, also, the financing of home building by private enterprise, with- out benefit of either of the existing types of Federal housing credit, would tend to become more favor- able to buyers than the antiquated methods of the pre-depression period.
7. It is too early to predict with certainty the effect of Veterans' loans on the housing picture, but we can be certain that these loans should be handled by the NHA so that re- sults of the different types of loans can be compared and so that the
veterans' loans may have the bene- fit of the NHA experience and estab- lished procedures instead of being handled by a new organization which would be obliged to impro- vise its structure and methods from the ground up.
8. On the relation of urban re- habilitation to the general housing program, we point to one of the sad- dest results of the old-time method of locating homes and subdivisions where land was cheap or for other reasons regardless of the city plan. This is the deterioration and final desertion, in some instances, of great interior areas in the city, with its consequent drain on all taxpayers, and the building up of unregulated and unplanned communities outside of the city limits which do not carry their part of the tax burden. This has produced the decay of vast ur- ban areas, with progressively lowered tax receipts and has taken off the city tax rolls great numbers of large tax payers who have moved beyond the city's jurisdiction, but who im- pose upon the city the cost of high- ways, transit lines, utilities and other facilities to connect their city offices with their suburban homes. Some studies have been made in se- lected communities as to the values involved and the population and areas affected, but we have not at hand comprehensive, authoritative information as to these elements of the problem throughout the Nation. However, since 56.5 percent of our population in 1940 was living in ur- ban communities and it has been estimated that at least one-fourth of all urban territory is blighted, and much more deteriorating, the national scope and importance of the prob-
19
Planning and Civic Comment
lem is evident. Probably 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 people are now living in these blighted districts. We know that only about 60 percent of urban dwellings are in good repair and supplied with adequate plumb- ing. Some of the remaining dwell- ings can be repaired where they stand. But the rehabilitation of acknowledged blighted neighbor- hoods and the stopping of blight in the principal cities of the United States is a most urgent problem for solution now. Manifestly the ex- penditures for housing, both private and public, anticipated at the con- clusion of the war should be applied so as to help in the solution of this problem.
All students of planning are agreed that these blighted areas can be redeemed only through the as- sembly of land in districts extensive enough to set a new use and quality to the neighborhood. This involves the use of local planning commis- sions for fundamental planning that has not been possible when the Commission was bound to accept the settled districts of the city with their existing use. For this we need both laws authorizing condemnation to assemble such property and also means to finance its acquisition. Under our present tax systems cities are mainly dependent upon real estate taxes, and, with existing debt limits, very few cities in the United States can afford to buy outright an entire district. Experience shows that piece-meal rebuilding, either by private or public agencies, does not change the character of the blighted district as a whole sufficiently to make a new and prosperous com- munity of it.
Since it seems that any proposed tax reforms which will permit cities to use more productive tax sources than at present will be many years in the making, the cities which, un- der satisfactory conditions, under- take to rehabilitate entire districts within their borders, must look to the Federal Government for credit (and perhaps in the end for grants in aid) in order to do the job. As a matter of fact, in most of the larger cities, the citizens pay into the Federal Government, in income and other taxes, amounts far in excess of any grants in aid which have ever been begged back again. Short of a comprehensive tax reform pro- gram which would permit cities to tax obvious sources of revenue for their own purposes, it is only a fair and wise alternative to return to the cities some part of the tax on income earned there.
If the properties within an area defined by the Planning Commission could be purchased with Federal loans, to which the credit of the dis- trict (not of the city as a whole) would be pledged, we should have, for the first time in America, an op- portunity for the local Planning Commission to decide where housing of various types — private and public — should be developed within the built-up city, and under conditions which could insist on adequate recreation spaces, off-street parking of cars where desirable, reasonable densities of occupation, and highway and transportation service.
Therefore, we approve the general principles of the bill, drawn by Mr. Alfred Bettman of Cincinnati and introduced into the 78th Congress by Senator Thomas. Under such a
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Planning and Civic Comment
bill, with certain needed state and local legislation, we believe there will be a real chance that urban re- development on an adequate scale will take place. Without such Federal leadership and aid, the present favorable opportunity for successful urban redevelopment will be lost, including the use of postwar building by private enterprise, and the deterioration of our cities will continue to neutralize other efforts for general economic redevelopment.
9. In this connection the Associa- tion would point out the necessity for an over-all Federal planning agency to guide and coordinate all the various land-uses and construc- tion programs at all levels of govern- ment. Such an agency should enjoy the guidance and close contact of Congress, but should include enough executive, ex officio members to have within itself full knowledge and understanding of the problems pre- sented for solution.
As a practical means of achieving this, we respectively submit the analogy of the old Public Buildings Commission which operated within a more limited field most success- fully for many years, and suggest a Federal Planning Commission be established and constituted as fol- lows:
Chairman and senior minority member of the Public Building and Grounds or other appro- propriatei Committee of both Houses of Congress
Federal Works Administrator
National Housing Administrator
Representative of Department of the Interior
Representative of the Department of Agriculture
Director of Planning
Two or more qualified citizens
The Director of Planning would be the only salaried 'member. The other members of the Commission would receive nothing beyond ex- penses and a per diem for actual ser- vice.
If such an agency is not created, planning within the Federal Govern- ment will continue to be compart- mentalized and there will be no method of coordinating and rec- onciling plans o Federal, state and local governments.
Respectfully submitted for the AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Major General U. S. Grant, 3rd First Vice- President
January 18, 1945
Honorable Robert P. Taft
Chairman, Subcommittee on
Housing and Urban Redevelop- ment
Special Committee on Postwar Eco- nomic Policy and Planning
United States Senate
Washington, D. C.
My dear Senator Taft:
The fo lowing statement, supple- mentary to my testimony of yester- day, is respectfully submitted to clarify my answers to some of the Senators' questions and to explain further the basis for this Associa- tion's recommendations.
While no general formula appears to have been found to relieve the Federal Government of its rapidly mounting war debt, there is almost universal agreement that a pros- perous Nation with full employment and an exceptionally high national
21
Planning and Civic Comment
income is absolutely necessary to avert financial disaster after the war. The Association has been convinced by policies actually adopted by Con- gress and approved by the President, that the Congress would consider favorably any program which would help to create such favorable con- ditions.
The Association therefore recom- mends Federal aid, and especially Federal leadership, in the urban re- development program under specific conditions which in its opinion will make this program ultimately self- liquidating and by helping the eco- nomic revival of our cities will result in materially enhancing an impor- tant source of Federal revenue.
The conditions thought necessary to accomplish this purpose are:
1. Federal aid to municipalities for the acquisition oj land in blighted areas that are in need of redevelop- ment to save the municipality from continued economic loss and de- terioration by stopping decentrali- zation and the spread of slum con- ditions. The advances so made can be substantially repaid over a period of years from the proceeds of sales and leases and the increased taxes justified by the redevelopment, if the latter is widely planned.
2. The write-down in the cost of the land to its new use value for sale or lease to private enterprise, so as to induce the maximum use of private capital in the construction on and management of the land re- developed.
3. Limitation of public housing authorities to the minimum pur- chase of land and construction of houses necessary to shelter decently the lowest income groups, which are
unable to pay the lowest rents that private enterprise can offer even with a reasonable reduction in land cost to a fair new use value. Such participation by Federal aided public housing authorities to be financed in accordance with the Federal Housing program established by Congress.
4. Conditioning Federal aid to ur- ban development upon the existence or establishment of a competent local planning agency and the close integration of urban redevelopment projects with the city or metro- politan area plan.
5. Similar integration of other Federal and Federal aid projects in the locality with the plan and with the urban redevelopment projects, whenever they are related or can mutually affect one another. Lack- ing the means of urban redevelop- ment and in the emergency con- ditions of the last four years, many Federal and Federal aid projects have had to be so located and de- signed as to increase the tendency to decentralization and blight.
6. The inability of most of our cities to assume the additional in- debtedness necessary to assemble the land for needed urban redevelop- ment is the chief impediment to its being initially financed by them. However, it is believed that in many cases the increase in taxes or even all the taxes on the particular areas redeveloped could be made avail- able, in addition to the proceeds from sales and leases, to pay back the advance made by the Federal Government, as proposed in para- graph 1 above. Several States have passed legislation to bring about urban redevelopment and it is prob-
22
Planning and Civic Comment
able that state participation or aid could be obtained if required.
7. The adoption of a Federal ur- ban redevelopment policy in time for the large amount of house con- struction that will inevitably take place afte the war, both by private enterprise and by public housing agencies, shall be in the blighted areas and a contribution to munici- pal improvement, rather than on cheap land in the suburbs and a further impetus to decentralization and municipal decay.
The Federal interest in urban re- development lies in the production thereby of more good and prosperous citizens and in the rehabilitation of the cities as a most important source of Federal revenue. A study of 5800 selectees recently rejected in the District of Columbia as unfit, for psychiatric reasons, shows a definite majority from the areas recognized
as due for redevelopment. The other costs of slums and decaying neighborhoods to the Federal Govern- ment as well as to the local munici- palities have been recognized by Congress and need not be repeated. But it is believed the experience gained to date proves that building new houses for low income groups alone does not remove the slums, only well-planned urban redevelop- ment can do this. We believe that urban redevelopment, as outlined, constitutes a program the promising results of which in husbanding and enhancing national wealth especially merit your consideration.
Respectfully submitted,
for THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Major General U. S. Grant, 3rd First Vice- President
Watch Service Report
National Parks
H. R. 27 (Bland) introduced Jan. 3, 1945. A bill to provide for the establishment of the Rehoboth-Assateague National Seashore in the States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and for other purposes. This area will include 75,000 acres lying between Cape Henlopen, Delaware and the south end of Assateague Island, Virginia. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 170 (Cannon, Mo.) introduced Jan. 3, 1945. A bill to authorize a National Mississippi River Parkway and matters relating thereto. To Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 1292 (Peterson) introduced Jan. 9, 1945. A bill providing for payments to the State of Wyoming and for rights-of-way, including stock driveways, over and across Federal lands within the exterior boundary of the Jackson Hole National Monument, Wyoming, and for other purposes. This bill would remove all valid objections to the Monument. The Federal District Court has declared that the Monument is legally established. To Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 1441 (Lemke) introduced Jan. 15, 1945. A bill to establish the Theodore Roose- velt National Park in the State of North Dakota. To Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 1705 (Thomason) introduced Jan. 23, 1945. Providing for the appointment of a United States Commissioner for the Big Bend National Park in the State of Texas, and for other purposes. This provides for an appointment by the U. S. District Court of a commissioner to enforce the rules and regulations made by the Secretary of the Interior for the government and protection of the new Park. To Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 1818 (Coffee) introduced Jan. 29, 1945. Relating to the acquisition of certain property within Mount Rainier National Park. This refers to approximately 300 acres
23
Planning and Civic Comment
of land owned by the Northern Pacific Railway Company which should be acquired by the Federal Government. To Committee on Public Lands.
Five bills have been introduced to repeal section 2 of the act entitled "An Act for the preservation of American Antiquities," approved June 8, 1906.
H. R. 409 (Ferdandez) introduced Jan. 3, 1945.
H. R. 1112 (O'Connor) introduced Jan. 6, 1945.
H. R. 1507 (Chenoweth) introduced Jan. 16, 1945.
H. R. 2110 (Barrett) introduced Feb. 12, 1945. AH referred to Committee on Public Lands.
S. 664 (Robertson) introduced March 1, 1945. To Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
H. R. 2109 (Barrett) introduced Feb. 12, 1945. To abolish the Jackson Hole National Monument as created by Presidential Proclamation Numbered 2578, dated March 15, 1943, and to restore the lands belonging to the United States within the exterior boundaries of said monument to the same status held immediately prior to the issuance of said proclamation. To Committee on Public Lands.
S. 67 (Hayden) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. To authorize the participation of States in certain revenues from national parks, national monuments and other areas under the administrative jurisdiction of the National Park Service, and for other purposes. A similar arrangement is in effect in National Forests and other Federal lands. To Com- mittee on Public Lands and Surveys.
S. 68 (Hayden) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. A bill to revise the boundaries of the Saguaro National Monument. Provides for revising and amending the exterior boundaries. To Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
S. 386 (EHender) introduced Jan. 25, 1945. To provide for the establishment of the Tensas River National Park, Louisiana, and for other purposes. The property is located within Madison Parish, Louisiana, and the area to be established shall not exceed 25,000 acres. To Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
Community Recreation Services Act
H. R. 5 (Hobbs) i ntroduced Jan. 3, 1945. Would create an office of Recreation Ser- vices in the Federal Security Agency to render services and facilities to States, counties and communities in developing recreation programs for the people of the U. S. and would provide for the transfer to local and county governments without cost of the Federally owned recreation facilities acquired by the Federal Works Agency under the Lanham Act. Authorizes $450,000 for the fiscal year ending 1946. To Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.
Foot Trails
H. R. 2142 (Hoch) introduced Feb. 13, 1945. To amend the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 to authorize the construction and maintenance of a national system of foot trails. Not to exceed 10,000 miles in length. The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, cooperating with other Federal agencies would construct and maintain a national system ot foot trails, not to exceed 10,000 miles in total length. An appropriation of $50,000 for the first postwar fiscal year would be authorized. The Appalachian Trail, extending from Maine to Georgia for 2050 miles, shall be included in the national system. To Committee on Roads.
Federal City
S. 9 (McCarran) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. Providing for the reorganization of the government of the District of Columbia. Provides for the appointment of a Council of nine members and a city manager to take over the duties and powers heretofore vested in the Commissioners of the District of Columbia; 7 councilmen shall be elected by the citizens of the District of Columbia and 2 appointed at large by the President. The City Manager would receive $20,000 compensation and the councilman, $5,000 per annum. To Committee on the District of Columbia.
S. 13 (McCarran) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. To provide for the replanning and re- building of slum, blighted, and other areas of the District of Columbia and the assembly, by purchase or condemnation, of real property in such areas and the sale or lease thereof for the redevelopment of such areas in accordance with said plans; and to provide for the organization of, procedure form and the financing of such planning, acquisition and sale or lease. To Committee on the D. C.
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Planning and Civic Comment
S. 98 (Capper) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. Superseded by S. 610 (Capper) introduced Feb. 22, 1945. To provide for the replanning of blighted and other areas of the District of Columbia and the assembly, by purchase or condemnation of real property in such areas and the sale or lease thereof for the redevelopment of such areas in accordance with said plans; and to provide for the organization of, procedure for and the financing of such planning, acquisition, and sale or lease, including the establishment of the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency, and for other purposes. To Com- mittee on the D. C.
H. R. 480 (Hebert) introduced Jan. 3, 1945. To abolish the United States Park Police Force in the District of Columbia, to transfer the personnel of the United States Park Police to the Metropolitan Police Department. L. H. Weir, noted park authority, states in his "Manual of Municipal and County Parks," Vol. II, compiled as a result of a nation-wide study of municipal and county parks conducted by the Playground and Recreation Association of America in cooperation with the American Institute of Park Executives, "that there is a general impression that city police officials regard park policing as an unimportant phase of police activity and older men or officers recovering from injuries or illness are usually assigned to park duties. Even these men are fre- quently shifted to other duties during emergencies, leaving the parks unprotected. The result is inadequate and inefficient policing of the parks." Mr. Weir has stated that in all his experience he has found no instance of satisfactory policing of park areas by regular city policemen, whereas there had been almost universal satisfaction under specialized park police forces. To the Committee on the D. C.
H. R. 541-S. 119 (Randolph-Bilbo) introduced Jan. 3 and Jan. 6, 1945. Authorizing and directing the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to construct two four-lane bridges to replace the existing Fourteenth Street or Highway Bridge across the Potomac River. See PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT, Vol. 10, No. 4, Oct. 1944, page 7. President Roosevelt asked that this matter be held up until he could confer with the various execu- tive Federal and District agencies concerned. To the Committee on Interstate and For- eign Commerce and Senate D. C. Committee.
H. R. 2097 (Randolph) introduced Feb. 9, 1945. A bill to establish a boundary line between the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and for other purposes. To Committee on the D. C.
Planning
H. R. 1984 (Woodrum) making appropriations for the Executive Office and sundry independent executive bureaus, boards, commissions and offices for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1946. Passed House Feb. 8, 1945. The House approved bill provides under Public Works advance planning, the sum of $5,000,000 toward accomplishing the pro- visions of Title V of the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944, of which not to exceed 4 per centum shall be available for administrative expenses necessary thereto, to be immediately available and to remain available until June 30, 1946, including salary not to exceed one position at $10,000 per annum, personal services and rent in the Dis- trict of Columbia. $150,000 are appropriated for Virgin Islands public works to enable the Federal Works Administrator to carry out the functions vested in him by the act of Dec. 20, 1944 (Pub. Law 510.) To Committee on Appropriations. Senate action to follow.
H. R. 2203 (Cochran) introduced Feb. 15, 1945. To establish the Missouri Valley Authority to provide for unified water control and resource development on the Missouri River and surrounding region in the interest of the control and prevention of floods, the promotion of navigation and reclamation of the public lands, the promotion of family- type farming, the development of the recreational possibilities and the promotion of the general welfare of the area, the strengthening of national defense. To Committee on Rivers and Harbors.
Water Pollution Control
Several bills have been introduced to prevent and control water pollution: H. R. 519 (Mundt) introduced Jan. 3, 1945; H. R. 587 (Mrs. Smith of Maine) introduced Jan. 6, 1945; H. R. 592 (Spence) introduced Jan. 3, 1945; S. 535 (Myers) introduced Feb. 15, 1945; S. 330 (White and Brewster) introduced Jan. 18, 1945. (See Resolution 8, under Conservation, passed by the Board of Directors of the APCA at the Annual Meeting, on
25
Planning and Civic Comment
page 57. These bills have been referred to the Committees on Rivers and Harbors and Commerce.
Conservation
S. Con. Res. 5 (Tydings) introduced Jan. 10, 1945. Directs the Chief of Engineers of the U. S. Army to transmit to Congress at the earliest possible date a report showing (1) the nature and location of all flood control projects to be undertaken immediately follow- ing the war; (2) the cost thereof; (3) the manpower needed; (4) their relative urgency; (5) the amount of land that would be permanently flooded; (7) the average annual damage to wildlife involved in each project; (8) the time that would elapse before reser- voirs would silt up; and (9) all other pertinent data needed by Congress in the formation of a postwar flood-prevention program. To the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
S. Ill (Hatch and Hayden) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. To revise the method of deter- mining the payments to be made by the United States to the several States with respect to conservation lands administered by the Department of Agriculture. This bill pro- vides that 25 percent of the receipts from these lands are to be paid to the States in which said land is situated and apportioned to the counties of the States as their interest ap- pears. To the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.
S. 31 (McCarran) introduced Jan. 6, 1945. A bill to amend the Taylor Grazing Act for the purpose of providing for greater participation by district advisory boards in ad- ministration of the act. Provides that the Secretary of the Interior shall not make any change in the fees payable for grazing livestock within any district unless the advisory board has consented to the change. To the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
H. R. 381 (Cravens, Ark.) introduced Jan. 3, 1945. A bill to provide for local taxa- tion of real estate owned by the United States. The National Wildlife Federation points out that all property owned by the Federal Government, (except that used for court- houses, post offices, customhouses, mints, bullion depositories, jails or national ceme- teries) shall be subject to taxation, and if this bill should become a law, about 350,000,000 acres of forest and grazing lands would go on the tax roll. To the Committee on Public Lands.
H. R. 1622 (Whitten) introduced Jan. 18, 1945. A bill to provide for payments to the States with respect to certain lands of the United States. Provides for payments to the States in lieu of taxes on practically all Federally owned lands. To the Committee on Public Lands.
26
V
•Xr
GREEN LIGHT OVER EVERGLADES
A long step ahead to facilitate establishment of an Everglades National Park was the President's approval, on December 6, 1944, of the measure sponsored by Representative Peterson and Senator Andrews of Florida to broaden the 1934 Congressional authorization for the project.
The new law has three principal objectives: First, it provides for acceptance by the United States of lands within the 2,000 square mile project for protection of their biological resources pending establish- ment of the park. This is subject, however, to such reservations as the Secretary of the Interior may approve for oil, gas or mineral rights. The State authorities consider provision for those reservations to be essential for the time being.
Secondly, it requires that a major portion of the project area, as determined by the Secretary, shall be freed of those reservations — so that the United States will possess the land in fee simple — before the park may be established. This means that reasonable time for oil explorations will be allowed. Also, it means that, in the event com- mercial oil discoveries are not made within such time, and the res- ervations therefore are abrogated over an area of sufficient size for
Cover picture is of the swallow-tailed kite, by Walter A. Weber. This and other re- productions of his paintings are from the book "Fading Trails," through courtesy of the Macmillan Company.
Courtesy Allan D. Cruickshank and the National Audubon Society.
initial park purposes, the park then may be established, to be rounded out as additional area within the authorized boundary becomes un- reservedly available.
Thirdly, the law stipulates that if the park is not established within 10 years from December 6, 1944, title to any of the lands accepted by the United States shall automatically revest in the State of Florida, or other grantors. This defines the reasonable period of time for oil explorations, and conveyance of fee simple land title.
Special credit for the new authority is due to Florida's former Governor Holland, Governor Caldwell, Florida members of Congress, the Park Service, and many conservation-minded organizations and individuals.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, being best prepared for the work, with the help of the Park Service, the State, the National Audubon Society, and others, will handle protection activities until such time as the park is established. Over 1,000,000 acres were in process of acceptance by the Federal Government, as the first conveyance of land, when this statement was prepared.
"PARKS" presents scenes of the Everglades to show something of their magnificent park resources; and to prove that the area deserves a better fate than drainage and continued destruction of its wildlife.
Above. Cabbage palms form a decorative skyline in the Everglades at dusk, as seen from the Tamiami Trail.
Iv
s
Roseate spoonbills are rare even in the Glades. Onc\ numerous in the Gulf regions, remaining flocks breed i\
By Walter A. Weber, courtesy of the Macmillan Company.
iribbean countries, and are summer visitors in extreme them Florida.
Above courtesy Department of the Interior. At right by Walter A. Weber, courtesy the Macmillan Company.
Above, a typical cypress grove with its clusters of parasitic air plants. Such places invite the Everglades kite {shown opposite), anhingas, and other birds. The kite's diet consists principally of snails. The sharp, hooked beak is designed for snail extracting. Drain the Glades and this bird is lost!
IV
I *
el
jftTw
At left, a lagoon reflecting the deep, moss-festooned jungle found along the inland waterways of the park project. In such retreats lives the rare American crocodile, pictured below, waiting to attack a drinking deer, or an unsuspecting water bird.
Left, courtesy Department of the Interior. Below, by Walter A. Weber, courtesy the Macmillan Company.
Tangled mangroves hide the entrance to Cuthbert Lake. Paddln from Florida Bay, through just such narrow channels as this, (A
.
—
Courtesy Allan D. Cruickshank and the National Audubon Society.
lemerges suddenly and surprisingly upon the great hidden lakes, with \their calm waters in contrast to the restless sea nearby.
Above, courtesy Allan D. Cruickshank and the National Audubon Society. Below, courtesy Chicago Natural History Museum.
Reproduced by permission of the Florida Geological Survey.
At upper left, stately wood ibis photographed while cruising the Glades. Are they headed for some marshy lowland such as that pic- tured above, where clouds and grass and sunshine blend into another landscape variation of their Everglades habitat?
The odd, hair-lipped creatures at left are manatees, relics of Eocene times. They are the mermaids of the ancient mariners — the old salts' pin-up girls — and most of the few found in this country today probably are in Everglades waters.
The cypress hammock above, and the swamp-flanked ridge below, illustrate still different Everglades landscapes. The Glades are living masses of form and color, not monotonous flatlands. The Florida cranes, shown opposite, come at evening to roost in such open places. Preservation of the inspiring natural resources of the Everglades, un- surpassed elsewhere, is within the power of the American people. Will we act in time?
Pictures on this page courtesy Department of the Interior. On opposite page, by Walter A. Weber, courtesy the Macmillan Company.
The Seminole Indians, natives of the Everglades, are a proud people. This Seminole woman posed in her tribal finery for Allan Cruickshank of the National Audubon Society.
State Park
Review of recent issues of the monthly magazines issued by va- rious state agencies reveals that post- war plans for state parks and recre- ational areas are appearing with increasing frequency. Several of the States also have issued special pub- lications, such as Outdoor Indiana of the Future — Postwar and Long Range Program, and The Report of the New Hampshire Council on Postwar Planning and Rehabilita- tion. Related to the subject is the recently issued brochure, Memorials That Live, that was prepared by the American Commission for Living War Memorials in Cooperation with the National Committee on Physical Fitness of the Federal Security Agency.
The National Park Service 1944 questionnaire form, Annual Records on State Park Lands and Related Areas contains three questions on postwar plans: (1) Total cost of construction program proposed for 6-year period following the war; (2) Total cost of construction for which detailed plans and specifications are complete; (3) Total cost of land ac- quisition proposed for 6-year period following the war. Early returns in- dicate not only sizeable programs for acquisition and development, but also a surprising amount of con-
struction for which plans and speci- fications are complete.
Connecticut: Two new state parks are announced by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Under the will of the late Curtis H. Veeder, his property of 708 acres, known as Penwood on Avon Mountain ridge east of Simsbury, was given to the State. Trails along the ridge, part of the Metacomet Trail route, give attractive views of the Farmington River Valley.
The Hazen Foundation of Had- dam has acquired and presented to the State 154 acres between the village of Haddam and the Con- necticut River, to be known as Haddam Meadows. Much of the land is open meadow suitable for playing fields. The last General Assembly appropriated funds for the purchase of Haddam Island, an old shad-fishing site, opposite the new State Park.
Florida: The inspiration for a proposed State Park comes from the fact that Florida has a valuable asset which has not been officially recognized but has often been ex- ploited by private enterprise — the Seminole Indians. It is proposed to recognize them by establishing and properly maintaining a State Park near the natural habitat of the
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Seminoles and to make it possible for these colorful American natives to become a part of the natural scenery. It will provide an outlet for the handicrafts of the Indians and serve as an inspiration to them to raise their standard of living. It will pro- vide one more spot where natural beauty can be preserved and en- joyed by all people. Those of scientific turn of mind will find this a most satisfactory natural laboratory in which to study.
This proposed State Park would probably be one of the most difficult to administer but it would yield re- sults in proportion to the effort and thought devoted to it. Many plan- ning problems would have to be solved by trial and error for no precedent exists for guidance. The wise counsel of everybody who knows from experience how to cooperate with Seminole Indians and how to secure their cooperation, must be sought. Planning for this kind of a State Park, if it is to be successful, cannot be a hurried job. The best method of approach is that planning for this State Park should be con- sidered a continuing project. There is assurance that the necessary land can be had free of charge. Mr. D. Graham Copeland, Chairman, Board of Collier County Commissioners and also representing Lee County Land Company, formally offered the land to the Florida Board of Forestry and Parks, a total of 5,875 acres, as a gift.
The Director of State Parks for Florida, Lewis G. Scoggin, recom- mends that the Florida Board of Forestry and Parks accept the pro- posal and immediately prepare pre- liminary studies for a master plan
of the park. Mr. Scoggin also recom- mends that the area be designated as the Seminole Indian State Park. Mr. Barron Collier has already been recognized by the Collier Memorial Park, which will become a part of the new State Park.
In 1926, the late Barron Collier acquired 160 acres from the South- ern States Land and Timber Com- pany, comprising what was then known as "Royal Palm Hammock." Early in 1940, the County Board proceeded with the development of the Park and appropriated $10,000 for a suitable monument to Mr. Collier. As developed, the central memorial consists of a mound sur- mounted by a beautiful six-column memorial in Greek architecture, with a white marble pedestal and a life-size bronze bust of Mr. Collier.
This area will be different from anything else in the State Park Sys- tem in Florida, in fact, different from any other area in the United States. It has historic background and is most interesting because of the natural conditions prevailing there. It lies at the northern edge of the Ten Thousand Islands and to the west of the proposed Everglades National Park.
Michigan: A 5-year postwar plan for 48 state parks and recreational areas at a total estimated cost of over $16,000,000 is outlined in the February issue of Michigan Con- servation. The largest single ex- penditure of $3,016,000 is proposed for Sterling State Park near Monro which is planned as a major area to serve the metropolitan population of southeastern Michigan. Second largest is $2,225,000 for the Upper Peninsula's Porcupine Mountain
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Park which is in the process of acquisition.
Minnesota: Theodore Wirth, Superintendent Emeritus of the Minneapolis Park System, was noti- fied on January 10 that the Trustees of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society had voted to award him the George Robert White Medal of Honor, which is considered the out- standing horticultural award in America.
New York: Deer hunting on an experimental basis was permitted on certain portions of the 57,000- acre Allegany State Park on No- vember 27-29.
South Carolina: J. H. Gadsby has succeeded B. P. Boyter as Act- ing Director of State Parks. Mr. Gadsby was employed by the Na- tional Park Service for a number of years in connection with the CCC program and headed the Service's Regional Office that was located in Atlanta during a portion of that time.
West Virginia: The December issue of West Virginia Conservation reports that the Conservation Com- mission has launched a program for improving fishing in several of the state parks. The artificial lakes are to be drained to within two or three feet of the bottom. Good quality fertilizer will be placed in the re- maining water, aquatics especially suited to fish life planted, and then the lakes will be restocked.
Charles G. Sauers reports: The Forest Preserve District of Cook County, effective January 1st, has
created a new department: a De- partment of Conservation. The title is inadequate. What we ac- tually propose is an organization to effect the education of the people in the Chicago metropolitan area, both young and old, in nature apprecia- tion and good outdoor manners; ultimately in the wise utilization of all of the Nation's natural resources. Its further responsibility will be the restoration and management of wildlife in the preserves; and that encompasses the enjoyment by the people of that wildlife, including wildflowers and fishing.
President Clayton F. Smith and the Board of the Forest Preserve Commissioners are convinced that the problems arising from misuse of the preserves, including vandalism, can be solved or abated only by teaching people how to walk, how to see, how to understand, how to enjoy; that it is not enough merely to set aside 39,000 acres of native woodlands and stream valleys; or to provide in them intensive-use areas for picnicking and trails for pene- trating the untouched interiors; that the people must be taught how to perceive, how to appreciate, and how to use their own property.
Roberts Mann has been ap- pointed Superintendent of Conser- vation. Edward P. Romilly suc- ceeds him as Superintendent of Maintenance. Because this is a pioneering step in park work, a number of authorities in the field of wildlife management and inter- pretive education have been asked to serve as an Advisory Board.
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Constitutionality of D. C. Urban Redevelopment Bill
By ALFRED BETTMAN
EDITOR'S NOTE: The revised District of Columbia Urban Redevelopment Bill (S98) as introduced into the 79th Congress on January 6, 1945 by Senator Capper is the result of revision of S1930-H.R. 4847 introduced in the 78th Congress after conferences between the officials and attorneys of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and others interested.
Since the fight made on the bill and the public housing program of the District of Columbia was inspired by national organizations in the hope that the decisions of the District of Columbia would be followed throughout the United States, the present pending bill and the following memorandum made by Mr. Bettman shortly before his death on January 21, 1945, on its contents and constitutionality is of nation-wide interest and importance. In view of the fact that enabling legislation of some kind has been passed m 10 States and is pending in a number of others, urban redevelopment is being recognized as one of the most pressing postwar needs in nearly every city of the United States. To succeed it needs adequate enabling legislation under the Constitution.
Memorandum on Constitutionality of the District of Columbia Rede- velopment Bill of 1944 (S. 1930 —
H.R.4847).
This memorandum deals with the constitutionality of the District of Columbia Redevelopment Bill of 1944 (S. 1930— H.R. 4847\ which sets up the enabling powers and procedures for the redevelop- ment, that is, the replanning, clear- ance, redesign and rebuilding, of the blighted (including slum) portions of the territory of the District of Columbia by the redevelopment from time to time of portions of that territory called areas or project areas. The constitutional questions can be more clearly thought about by first stating the main features of the measure and which bear upon the constitutional questions, namely:
First. That the redevelopment shall be applied to blighted (including slum) areas, and thereby produce the removal of the blighted or slum conditions.
Second. The redevelopment shall be in accordance with a comprehensive or gen- eral plan of development of the District of Columbia and the more specific plans of the areas to be redeveloped, and said plans shall be made or adopted by public plan-
ning agencies, namely: The National Capital Park and Planning Commission with the approval of the District Com- missioners.
Third. That the plans shall be carried out by means of sales or leases of the areas to corporations (or, in the case of low-rent housing, to housing authorities) which have the statutory power and authority to take over the areas and which will be obligated to produce and maintain the re- development in accordance with the offi- cially adopted plans.
Fourth. As a necessary procedure to- ward the accomplishment of the planned redevelopment, the lands and existing properties in an area are to be assembled by a public agency entitled The National Capital Land Agency. This Land Agency is established for this assembly and for the administration of the selling and leas- ing of the areas and is given the power to acquire the land by purchase or eminent domain.
Fijtb. Public funds are appropriated for the land assembly, with provision for re- imbursement to the extent of the pro- ceeds of sales of the areas and rentals from leases of the areas; with the result that the public will ultimately bear the loss or receive the gain from the difference be- tween the cost of the land acquisition and the proceeds of the sales or leases of the areas.
The bill represents a careful and integrated system for accomplishing the gradual removal of blight and slum conditions and the production
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of sound redevelopment; and in con- sidering the constitutional question, it is the integrated system or pro- gram as a whole and not the separate parts segregated from each other which should be kept in mind.
There are certain premises and assumptions so settled by expe- rience, by legislative determinations and by judicial decisions that there is no necessity for their lengthy presentation in this memorandum, which is designed to dwell chiefly upon any novel aspects which this particular proposed piece of legis- lation presents. For instance: blighted districts produce social evils such as disease, vice; they represent and contain very serious economic losses not merely to those who own property in them but also to the whole community as a com- munity, such as excessive operating costs relative to current revenues, capital losses, evidenced by falling tax bases, capital losses due to stagnation in development, con- tagious spread of the blight; these social and economic losses are uni- versally known and admitted. Ow- ing to the multiplicity of land owner- ships and the obsolescence of exist- ing lot lay-out, the necessity for assembling the lands into project areas, before anything approaching a planned redevelopment can take place, is obvious. The necessity for the exercise of the power of eminent domain to bring about this land assembly must be equally obvious.
It certainly is also obvious that the mere removal of present con- ditions without providing for sub- stitution of sound conditions would not be tolerable public policy. In other words, there must be both the
clearing away the bad conditions of the present and the production of sound conditions, that is, socially and economically valuable and healthy conditions, in their place; and this soundness is not attainable without the general or comprehen- sive planning of the future develop- ment of the District and the plan- ning of the separate areas in accord- ance with that general plan. And the persistence, extent and growth of these blighted districts through- out long periods of prosperity, as well as expert analyses of the causes of this phenomenon, demonstrate beyond question the necessity for assistance from public funds if the sick areas of our cities are to be brought into vigor and health.
So there is necessity for the clear- ance, necessity for the public plan- ning, necessity for the land assembly and eminent domain, necessity for subjecting the areas to the plans, necessity for financial aid; and the declaration of these necessities in the first section of the bill is sup- ported to such extent by what our eyes can see, by our urban history, and by research in the fields of city planning, urban economics and so- ciology that, keeping in mind the recognized principles of the separa- tion of powers and the attitude of courts toward legislative determina- tions, there cannot be any factual or forensic basis for judicial over- ruling of that declaration.
For clear thinking it is important to note that the part in the re- development process which the bill gives to public agencies and funds does not include the construction of any buildings or structures but only the planning of the uses to which
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the redeveloped territory is to be put, the assembly of the land and the selling or leasing of the areas. The construction and operation of the redeveloped areas will be the province of the purchasers or lessees under whatever statutes or common law govern them.
So the constitutional question may be stated: may the powers of eminent domain and taxation be exercised for removing the evils of blighted and slum districts and plan- ning their redevelopment and, as means for accomplishing the carry- ing out of the plans, for assembling the land in redevelopment areas and selling or leasing those areas subject to the plans.
Constitutionality of Clearance of Blighted and Slum Areas as Primary Purpose Now Settled — Perhaps Even as Sole Purpose.
The enactment and judicial vali- dation of public housing or housing authorities statutes in thirty states has now completely settled the constitutional validity of the exer- cise of eminent domain and taxation for the land assembly, the clearance, the planning and at least one class of redevelopment. In the District of Columbia, Congress has at least all the powers of a state legistature and, indeed, clearance, planning and redevelopment for housing has been upheld in the District. In Keyes v. United States (U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 1941), 73 App. D. C. 273; 119 Fed. (2d) 444, condemnation was brought under the Alley Dwelling Act and, amongst other issues, the constitu- tional issue of public use was raised. Title I of the Act gave the Authority power to acquire property outside of
alley areas for the purpose of pro- viding accommodations for those displaced by the demolition of alley dwellings, and Title II gave the general power to the Authority to enter into housing projects and the case arose under Title II and there- fore the issues were the same as in the state cases on the validity of the housing authority statutes. The court stated that, of course, the two parts of the Act, that is the clearance and the development parts, are in- terrelated, and the elimination of slums is an important and vital part of the whole program. The court held that the legislative declaration of the detrimental nature of slums is binding upon the courts unless something more is produced against it than mere statements or argu- ments; that facts must be produced which would demonstrate the ar- bitrariness of the legislative declara- tion. On the constitutional question the court cited the Louisville case (United States v. Certain Lands in the City of Louisville, 78 Fed. (2d) 684), in which a Federal court in Kentucky had invalidated a taking by the Federal Government for a housing project of property located within a State, and interpreted that decision as limited to property within States and therefore without relevancy in the District of Colum- bia, for "in that District Congress has plenary legislative powers — all the power a State has within the territory of the State and more." In Oklahoma City v. Sander st 94 Fed. (2d) 323 a Circuit Court of Appeals upheld eminent domain for Federal slum clearance and housing projects; and in November 1943 the United States District Court for
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the Northern District of Ohio, United States v. Boyle, 52 Fed. Supp. 906, declared it to be now settled that slum clearance and public housing is a public use and that the Louisville case is no longer authori- tative. The District Court's De- cision in U. S. v. Boyle, was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, January 2, 1945, Mr. Justice Roberts delivering the opinion. (Nos. 68-69, 388— October Term, 1944.) So really there is really very little, if any, of a constitutional question on urban redevelopment left.
There are many passages in the opinions in these housing cases, as well as in earlier cases dealing with reclamation of swamp areas and the like, which go so far as to state that the removal of the blighted and slum conditions is itself a sufficient constitutional ground for the exer- cise of the public power of eminent domain and taxation, regardless of the uses to which the properties might ultimately be put. Of course the statutes also do contain some provision concerning the disposition of the properties after they have been cleared of their evil conditions, and the uses to which the land is to be put; but this is frequently stated to be the incidental purpose, the re- moval of the evil conditions being the prime purpose and being a pur- pose which in and of itself is con- stitutionally sufficient.
A few passages from the leading state cases on the slum clearance and public housing statutes will aid in presenting these settled principles — that eminent domain and public funds may constitutionally be em- ployed for the assembly of proper- ties in blighted and slum areas for
the purpose of removing the blight and slum conditions therefrom and convert them into sound conditions.
From In the Matter of the New York City Housing Authority v. Mutter, 270 N. Y. 333:
(Page 340) — The fundamental purpose of government is to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the public. All its complicated activities have that simple end in view. Its power plant for the purpose consists of the power of taxa- tion, the police power and the power of eminent domain. Whenever there arises in the State, a condition of affairs holding a substantial menace to the public health, safety or general welfare, it becomes the duty of the government to apply whatever power is necessary and appropriate to check it. There are differences in the nature and characteristics of the powers though distinction between them is often fine. But when the menace is serious enough to the public to warrant public action and the power applied is reasonable and fairly calculated to check it, and bears a reasonable relation to the evil, it seems to be constitutionally immaterial whether one or another of the sovereign powers is employed.
(Pages 341-2) To eliminate the in- herent evil and to provide housing facili- ties at low cost — the two things necessarily go together — require large scale operations which can be carried put only where there is power to deal in invitum with the oc- casionally greedy owner seeking excessive profit by holding out. The cure is wrought, not through the regulated ownership of the individual, but through the ownership and operation by or under the direct control of the public itself.
Then, addressing itself to the argu- ment that the ultimate occupants of the land are a special class, the low- income group, and not the whole public, the court added:
But the essential purpose of the legis- lation is not to benefit that class or any class; it is to protect and safeguard the entire public from the menace of the slums.
And at another point in the opinion :
Nothing is better settled than that the
property of one individual cannot, without
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his consent, be devoted to the private use of another, even when there is an incidental or colorable benefit to the public. The facts here present no such case. In a matter of far-reaching public concern, the public is seeking to take the defendant's property and to administer it as part of a project conceived and to be carried out in its own interest and for its own protection. That is a public benefit, and, therefore, at least as far as this case is concerned, a public use.
In slum clearance cases emphasis is usually placed on operating costs which are thrown upon the public; and it is worth noting that in this MuIIer case the New York Court mentioned the equally important effects on capital losses, saying:
Indirectly there is an equally heavy capital loss and a diminishing return in taxes because of areas blighted by the existence of the slums.
In the Pennsylvania case, Dornan v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, 331 Pa. State, 209, 223, the courts said:
In addition to all that has heretofore been said, there is, in the legal situation here presented, a factor which conclusively determines that the use for which these housing projects are designed is a public one, namely, that the construction of the new dwellings, as authorized by these statutes, is to be an aid to, and indeed a necessary adjunct of, the demolition of dangerous and unsanitary dwellings, which in turn, is an exercise of the police power of the Commonwealth. The fallacy in- volved in plaintiff's position is in viewing the right given to the Authorities to take private property by eminent domain in order to provide housing accommodations as though it were an independent and un- related grant of the power, without regard to the major and primary object of the legislation, which is the eradication of the slums.
From Allydonn Realty Corp. & others v. Holyoke Housing Authority & another, 304 Mass. 288:
(Page 292) The distinction between the use or service which is public and one which is private and therefore an im-
proper object to which to devote money belonging to all of the people has been dis- cussed at length in its application to various situations in a number of instances coming before this court * * * Some of these cases have become generally recog- nized as leading cases. They do not, however, establish any universal test. Each case must be decided with reference to the object sought to be accomplished and to the degree and manner in which that object affects the public welfare. Frequently an object presents a double aspect in that it may in some respects result in conferring a benefit upon the public and in other respects it may result in conferring a benefit upon or in paying money to private individuals. In such instances the cases tend to distinguish be- tween these results which are primary and those which are secondary or incidental and to classify the object according to its primary consequences and effects. At any rate, it is plain that an expenditure is not necessarily barred because individuals as such may profit, nor is it necessarily valid because of incidental benefit to the public. * * *
The housing authority law presents two facets. One type of project is the clear- ance of substandard areas, in other words the abolition of slums. The other is the provision of low rent housing. We shall examine these in turn. The statute con- tains legislative findings in substance that slums exist in this Commonwealth, and that they tend to increase crime and to menace the health and comfort of the inhabitants.
(Page 294) * * * We cannot say that expenditures directed in a rational manner toward the elimination of slums are not expenditures for a public purpose.* * *
The elimination of slums can be found to be a direct benefit and advantage to all of the people, to be a matter not readily approached through private initiative but demanding coordinated effort by a single authority, to be in line with the purposes of promoting the public safety, health and welfare and to require for its successful accomplishment the exercise of the power of eminent domain. It may well be deemed to rise to the dignity of a public service.
We next turn our attention to the second function of the statute, the pro- vision of low-rent housing. If the con- struction and maintenance of low-rent housing for families of low income (not paupers) were the sole object of the stat- ute, we might have difficulty, in view of former decisions and opinion of this court herein discussed, in holding that object
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to be public in character. But this part of the statute does not stand alone. The two parts were intended to complement each other.
So the removal of blight and slum conditions is itself of such tremen- dous social and economic impor- tance, and the participation of the public by means of more than in- effectual regulatory steps is so ab- solutely essential, that that removal in itself supports the validity of an urban redevelopment bill such as the bill under consideration, at least in the absence of provisions which would destroy the constitu- tional soundness of the provisions for that removal.
So we come to the question whether the planning of the rede- velopment and the selling or leasing of the land subject to the carrying out of the plan is itself so unrelated to the purpose of the clearance of the blight or so nonpublic in its nature as to exclude the constitu- tional possibility of the public's participation therein. Of course the question needs only to be asked to show its folly. The large blighted districts of American urban com- munities cannot be converted into districts which will be sound, that is, which will furnish good social environment to those who dwell or work therein and which will con- tribute to the economic soundness of the whole urban territory, unless the public plans at least the basic features of the redevelopment, such as the land-use distribution (that is the locations and extents of the parts of the areas to be used for habitation, recreation, education, business centers, etc.) and density standards and other larger features
of the redevelopment. It surely cannot be unconstitutional for the public to plan the basic or larger features of the development of the territory in which it lives, works, plays, gains its livelihood, conducts its civic life and from which it derives the financial means for the conduct of its community affairs. And as planning is useless if there be no way to carry out the plan, any system of redevelopment of blighted districts must contain ways and means of carrying out the plans. The way provided by the bill is a simple and obvious one, namely that the areas are sold or leased to de- velopers who are obligated to re- develop in accordance with the plans. Surely this is a sound in- strumental system for the removal of the blight and slum and the re- conversion of the areas into socially and economically healthy areas. Indeed, sound community develop- ment is impossible without proced- ure of this nature.
All this leads to the conclusion that the clearance and the rede- velopment planning, the assembly of the land for the purpose of sub- jecting it to the redevelopment plan and the disposition of the land for the purpose of having the plan car- ried out are, beyond all reasonable question, a public use. As the land must be assembled in order that the present evil conditions may be re- moved and sound redevelopment brought about and that assembly is impossible without exercise of emi- nent domain and employment of public funds, then that assembly is obviously for a public use, and the disposition of the lands for the accomplishment of the redevelop-
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ment is a public purpose; and the fact that at later stages of the re- development the instruments for the carrying out of the redevelopment plans are corporations with private capital and the ultimate uses, if the land or some of it will be private does not contradict that the assembly, the stamping of the plan upon the assembled land and the disposition of the land so as to get the plan carried out are stages of the clear- ance and redevelopment process which are incontrovertibly public uses or parts or stages of a public use. Whether the removal of the present unsound conditions be called the primary purpose and the re- building of the cleared areas be called the incidental purpose, or whether they are together called one purpose, the procedures in which the public is to participate, including eminent domain and including the financing of the land assembly, (with reimbursement from the pro- ceeds of sales and leases of the areas), these procedures and financing are so integrated with and so insepar- able from the other parts of the system and the public performance of them so essential that the con- stitutional validity of the system set up in the bill in all its parts stands out.
Courts have constantly said that the constitutional scope of eminent domain or taxation is never fixed by past activities or past forms or modes of public activities or by past judicial decisions but neces- sarily must grow and must be al- lowed to grow as knowledge of so- cial or economic evils grows or knowledge of their causes and their solutions or as new complexities of
ways of life due to new technologies demonstrate the necessity for the exercise of these public powers in new ways.
As stated in the above-cited slum clearance and housing case of Dor- nan v. Philadelphia Housing Author- ity et al, 331 Pa. State Reports, 209, at page 225, speaking of the mean- ing of "public use:"
On the contrary, definition has been left, as indeed it must be, to the varying circumstances and situations which arise, with special reference to the social and economic background of the period in which the particular problem presents it- self for consideration. Moreover views as to what constitutes a public use necessarily vary with changed conceptions of the scope and functions of government, so that to- day there are familiar examples of -.such use which formerly would not have been so considered. As government activities increase with the growing complexity and integration of society, the concept of 'public use' naturally expands in proportion.
In the above-cited New York City Housing Authority v. Mullert 270 N. Y. 333, the court said, relative to the use of eminent domain in the clearance of slum and blighted areas:
* * * Now, in continuation of a battle (against slum and blight areas), which is not entirely lost, if far from won, the Legislature has resorted to the last of the trinity of sovereign powers by giving to a city agency the power of eminent domain. We are called upon to say whether under the facts of this case, including the cir- cumstances of time and place, the use of the p-ower is a use for the public benefit — a public use — within the law. * * *
They have found here as elsewhere that to formulate anything ultimate, even though it were possible, would, in an in- evitably changing world, be unwise if not futile. Lacking a controlling precedent, we deal with the question as it presents itself on the facts at the present point of time. "The law of each age is ultimately what that age thinks should be the law."
Use of Private Corporations as Instruments oj the Publicly Planned
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Redevelopment, and Ultimate Private Uses of Redeveloped Areas do not Contradict the Public Nature of the Use for Re-Planning Land Assembly, Clearance and Disposition of the Areas.
Every feature of the Capper- Randolph bill is clearly within the decisions and opinions upholding the housing - authority - public- housing statutes until we come to those de- tails of the system which (a) use the private corporation (redevelopment corporation) as the instrument of the carrying out of the redevelop- ment plans and (b) permit housing which is not of the so-called low- rent or low-income class and permit uses other than habitation to be in- cluded in the land uses which are planned and carried out as a part of the redevelopment. Indeed, from the viewpoint of its public use or purpose, the bill is superior to the housing statutes in that it reposes the planning and administration in public agencies which are interested in all the social and economic needs of the community and not only in one class of them, and in that the planning takes all classes of these needs into account and good plan- ning is impossible otherwise.
As for the part which private corporations and funds are given, the traditional grant of eminent do- main to railroad, street railroad, electric and numerous other kinds of public utility companies which use private capital and pay profits thereon completely disposes of any contention that this feature of the bill presents any constitutional dif- ficulties. Eminent domain by and public financial aid to corporations with private capital are daily com-
mon-places in our life and law. Use of private corporations for slum clearance and housing was upheld in Roche v. Sexton, 268 N. Y. 594, approved in the above-cited New York City Housing Authority v. Muller.
That the uses of the redeveloped lands will not be restricted to low- rent housing but include also both housing of higher economic grades and non-housing uses, is obviously a rational, indeed an inescapable, feature of any intelligent redevelop- ment of extensive blighted territory and therefore a rational, integrated part of any system or program of elimination of urban blight and slum. Plainly one can say about it, but more emphatically, what the court said in the above-cited Mass- achusetts case: "We cannot say the plan is not adapted in a rational manner to bring about a result with- in the scope of legislative compe- tence."
And it is equally well-settled that the power of the public to use emi- nent domain and public funds for reclamation of areas, that is the conversion of areas from harm- fulness or unproductiveness into areas of social and economic health- fulness, is not weakened or invali- dated when the disposal of the land to private persons for private uses (homes, farms, etc.) is part of the plan. All reclamation, irrigation and similar areas are customarily sold or leased for private homes, farms or other ordinary private use by per- sons whose incomes do not bring them within a class needing finan- cial assistance or who may derive a profit from such use.
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State of Washington ex rel State Reclamation Board v. Clausen, 110 Washington, 525, dealt with the constitutionality of expending pub- lic funds raised by taxation in the purchase by the Public Reclamation Board of land to be subdivided and disposed of to farmers; in other words, the use of public funds for converting diseased or unproductive lands into productive lands by the public's buying up the land, plan- ning its subdivision and improve- ment and then selling it to private persons. The court sustained the statute on the ground that as there is abundant room for argument that the development of unoccupied lands suitable for agriculture and a land policy which would encourage the settlement thereof by home- owning farmers will materially con- tribute to the welfare of the people as a whole, the court would not answer that question contrary to the legislative answer. In response to the objection that the statute would benefit a special class, namely the agricultural class, a concurring opin- ion stated: "The benefit received by a class of citizens does not destroy the primary purpose the legislature had in enacting the statute to in- crease the agricultural products of the State and make productive lands heretofore unproductive."
It certainly is at least equally true that the conversion of declining and diseased urban areas into vigor- ous and productive areas which contribute to the social and economic health of the whole community, in accordance with a careful statute in which the public interests are carefully protected and a system is established for carefully planning
and administration, would not be declared by courts as not a public use and purpose in the face of the legislative declaration that it is. Judicial Decisions on Urban Re- development Legislation.
As yet there have been only two cases which have arisen from urban redevelopment legislation. Both of them have to do with housing proj- ects though neither statute was limited to housing. In the case of the Illinois statute, the adverse decision (Zurn v. City of Chicago, Circuit Court of Cook County) was ren- dered by the trial court and the case is pending on appeal; and as many of the most important fea- tures of the Capper-Randolph bill which support its constitutional validity are not contained in the Illinois statute, the decision of the lower court has very slight authority on the question discussed in this memorandum.* The New York courts, trial, appellate and supreme (Murray v. LaGuardia 291 N. Y. 320), upheld the New York statute but on grounds so closely derived from a special section of the New York State constitution as to be of uncertain strength elsewhere. How- ever, the United States Supreme Court refused certiorari (88 L. Ed. Advanced Opinions, 461) which may be interpreted to mean that the United States Constitution does not contain anything which precludes this type of legislation; and as it is the United States Constitution which
*The Supreme Court of Illinois in an opinion de- livered January 17, 1945 (59 N. E.-2nd 18) reversed the lower court. It declared the Illinois Redevelop- ment Law constitutional and in the opinion stated : "The achievement of the redevelopment of slum and blight areas, as denned in the act, in our opinion, constitutes a public use and a public pur- pose, regardless of the use which may be made of the property after the redevelopment has been achieved."
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Planning and Civic Comment
governs Congress when acting as the legislative organ of the District of Columbia, this action of the United
States Supreme Court implies high authority for the validity of the Capper-Randolph bill.
Board of Director's Meeting
At the Annual Business Meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Planning and Civic Association, held in Washington on January 12, it was disclosed that the Association had members in every State except Mississippi. Mr. Arthur E. Demaray, Associate Di- rector of the National Park Service, who was a guest at the meeting, im- mediately secured a new member from Mississippi.
NEW MEMBERSHIP POSTALS
Following the example of the Save-the-Redwoods League, the As- sociation has had prepared four triplicate illustrated folder postal cards for soliciting membership. Each of these highlights popular phases o^ the civic program — National Parks, Federal City, Roadside Improvement, Urban Re- development. The cards require l^c postage and may be sent to long lists of citizens interested in civic improvement. Members will be supplied with as many as they can use. Please write in for yours. Our Goal is a Thousand New Members in 1945-
REELECTION OF OFFICERS
The Board reelected its present officers: Frederic A. Delano, Chair- man of the Board; Horace M. Al- bright, President; U. S. Grant, 3rd, First Vice- President; Tom Wallace, Second Vice- President; Earle S.
Draper, Third Vice- President; C. F. Jacobsen, Treasurer, and Harlean James, Executive Secretary.
CONFERENCES
The next Annual Meeting of the Association is scheduled for Dallas, Texas; but the date cannot be set until the Government removes the ban on conferences. Mayor J. Woodall Rodgers heads the local committee on arrangements and the civic leaders in Dallas are enthu- siastic about the coming conference.
PROGRAM FOR 1945 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED The program for 1945 covers many crucial issues and is reflected in the resolutions adopted by the Board as a guide for action during the year. Here are the twenty-five resolutions:
Planning
1. The Board recognizes the re- sponsibility of the American Plan- ning and Civic Association to stimu- late citizen understanding and sup- port of local planning agencies in their efforts to promote the adoption and execution of official city plans to the areas which they serve, com- mends the organization of local plan- ning associations, and undertakes to provide at Annual Meetings and in other ways a national clearing house of their activities.
2. The Board reaffirms its belief in the service rendered by properly
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Planning and Civic Comment
constituted State Planning agencies.
3. The Board confirms its long- held opinion that the United States very much needs a National Plan- ning Agency which, in membership, might well be a joint Congressional and administrative body.
4. The Board advocates the re- demption and improvement of cities through urban redevelopment proc- esses tied securely into local plan- ning and administrative agencies and recommends appropriate local, state and Federal legislation for the purpose.
- 5. The Board commends the Con- gress of the United States for in- cluding in the Reconversion Act, in connection with advances for plans and specifications for postwar proj- ects, that "no loans or advances shall be made with respect to any individual project unless it conforms to an overall state, local or regional plan approved by competent state, local or regional authority."
6. The Board wishes again to go on record as favoring the principle that all Federal and Federal-aid structures within urban boundaries shall conform to local comprehen- sive plans and planning procedures.
7. The Board reaffirms its ad- vocacy of comprehensive planning and control of roadsides in rural dis- tricts and protection of residence neighborhoods, parks, parkways and public buildings from roadside de- velopment which constitutes de- facement in urban communities.
Housing
1. The Board commends the ex- tensive plans of private industry to supply housing for all those who can afford to buy or rent living quarters
and reaffirms its support of public housing to take care of very low- income families.
2. The Board continues to urge that all private and public housing be constructed of good minimum standards and in accordance with local comprehensive planning and zoning regulations.
3. The Board recommends adop- tion of controls to prevent housing of less than minimum standards in incorporated and unincorporated areas.
4. The Board favors the con- tinued consolidation by Act of Con- gress of the Federal Housing Agen- cies after the current Executive Or- der expires.
Conservation
1. The Board reaffirms its belief that existing national parks and monuments from Federal lands have been carefully and conservatively selected and so should be protected from commerical exploitation.
2. The Board maintains that the creation of new national parks and monuments is a function of the Federal Government and should not be unduly influenced by local con- siderations.
3. The Board deplores the efforts to repeal any part of the Lacey Na- tional Antiquities Act of 1906, which was passed by Congress as a con- servation measure. A repeal would be a set-back to Conservation.
4. The Board congratulates the President on his veto of the Bill to abolish Jackson Hole National Mon- ument and reaffirms its stand that the area is specifically suited to national-monument status.
5. The Board approves the prin-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ciples contained in the Peterson Bill (H. R. 1292), providing for pay- ments in lieu of taxes on behalf of the Jackson Hole National Monu- ment to the State of Wyoming for the benefit of Teton County and confirming certain private rights within the area, believing that this measure corrects any valid objec- tions to the Monument.
6. The Board favors the participa- tion of the States in revenues re- ceived from national parks and monuments, similar to existing ar- rangements for other Federal lands, as embodied in the Hayden Bill, S. 67.
7. The Board favors the return of the offices of the National Park Service from Chicago to Washington at the earliest practicable time.
8. In view of the importance to the country of conserving its water supply, public health and the purity of streams, lake and ocean estuaries, it is sound planning to provide for a pollution control program for post- war planning legislation.
Federal City
L The Board congratulates the Bureau of the Budget on its excel- lent report on the reorganization of the National Capital Park and Plan- ning Commission and wishes to place itself on record as favoring the principles set forth in the recom- mendations.
2. The Board favors urban re- development in the D. C. under leg-
islation which will ensure the re- spective supervision of the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission and the District Commis- sioners and which will permit sale or lease of assembled lands to private enterprise or public agencies for re- development.
3. The Board reaffirms its ad- vocacy of public housing in the Dis- trict to take care of very low-income families who cannot be housed ade- quately by private enterprise on the profit basis.
4. The Board reaffirms its belief that the best development of the Potomac Valley in the vicinity of Washington is for park purposes and continues its opposition to flood con- trol or power works which would in- jure the unique natural scenery of the river valley.
5. Owing to the interest which people of the United States have in the National Capital, it is suggested that the Federal contribution to the expenses of the National Capital be more nearly commensurate with Federal ownership and interests.
Highways
1. The Board commends the Re- port of the National Interregional Highway Committee and the exten- sion of Federal Aid to through high- ways in urban areas, with due re- gard, as set forth in the Report, to other elements in the comprehensive plan.
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Housing — The Essence of Good Planning
By PHILIP M. KLUTZNICK, Commissioner, Federal Public Housing Authority
In our community planning after the war, we must think no longer in terms of individual programs, de- signed to cope with individual prob- lems. We must bring our thinking and our thinkers together so that the best that all of us can offer to- ward the general welfare and future sound development of our com- munities will be synthesized and our efforts coordinated toward a com- mon end.
One of the main hopes for the further enrichment of urban life and, indeed, for preserving the fu- ture of our cities, lies in what we have come to call urban redevelop- ment. I do not mean a program that would be merely a substitute for the exercise of important police power of localities to tear down decayed structures. I mean, rather, the wholesale reclamation of misused and abused sections of our great cities, so that they will become at- tractiv places to live and work in and will help support, instead of being supported by, the communi- ties.
The low-rent, slum clearance work that has been done under the United States Housing Act of 1937 represents the only fairly large scale reclamation that has been under- taken thus far. From this expe- rience, we have particularly good reasons for realizing that a com- prehensive job of urban rehabilita- tion cannot be accomplished within the bounds of any one limited pro- gram. The areas that have been rebuilt with public housing projects
are but islands in the seas of blight which can be reclaimed as a whole only by combined efforts of private capital, the local communities and government.
Public housing, in fact, has cause for welcoming urban redevelopment. By relieving us of some of the bur- dens of reclaiming old areas it would facilitate our program of providing decent homes for low-income fami- lies. On the other hand, the most difficult aspect of urban redevelop- ment is the relocation of displaced families. In most cases this problem is insoluble without public housing.
The usable instrumentalities and tools that have been developed in other programs should not be ig- nored in any plan of urban redevel- opment. I am thinking specifically of the local housing authorities which build, own and operate the housing projects built under the United States Housing Act. These local bodies have the powers and experience for large-scale land as- sembly and redevelopment and many of them already have the power to dispose of land to private indivi- duals as well as public agencies.
An urban redevelopment pro- gram should employ the accepta- bility of the securities of these authorities in the financial marts at low interest rates, rather than to undertake the time-consuming and uncertain task of creating a body of legal opinion and market back- ground without which the securities of an agency may have questionable sale value. We know what the latter
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involves, for we have gone through the process of building up this credit rating.
The direct, easily measured for- mula of annual contributions by which rents now are brought within the range of low-income, public housing tenants may have sub- stantial merit as the means of ab- sorbing the mark-down between acquisition cost of land and its true value under proper use in accord- ance with the redevelopment plan.
A redevelopment program will fail in its purpose, however, if it does not recognize the need to take care of people who are displaced by such activity. If these people are to be adequately rehoused, a redevelop- ment program must be accompanied by a subsidized housing program. People live in these areas not be- cause they prefer the vermin-in- fested, disease-ridden shacks of the slums, but because they cannot pay the price that private capital must charge for modern homes in order to make a profit, or even to break even, on its investment. They will continue to live in slums or they will live in good, modern housing sub- sidized with public funds. There is no other choice.
When these basic economics are frankly acknowledged and not merely recognized, this Nation will be ready to undertake the full housing program that postwar needs will demand, and not before.
Disturbing rumblings of the old dispute between public and private housing already can be heard at the mere mention of postwar housing. These rumblings must not be al- lowed to become a roar that will drown out the voices of America's
ill-housed. If such a national trag- edy is to be averted, public and private housing must begin now to understand one another. Public housing must give assurance that it does not intend to invade the terri- tory that private industry can serve, and private industry, on the other hand, must prove that it will co- operate in other solutions to the housing problems of those it cannot reach.
In calling for community postwar housing plans, the Federal Public Housing Authority has established three guides to mark off the boun- daries of the public housing field. These are: (a) that no new public housing be provided where the need can be filled with decent existing housing; (b) that no public housing be provided which will compete with private capital in its appro- priate sphere; (c) that a gap of 15 to 20 percent be left between the highest rents paid by public housing tenants and the lowest rents at which new private housing can be supplied.
These guides have been estab- lished not only to give definite as- surance that public housing is not out to get business away from pri- vate enterprise, but also to induce private enterprise to reach farther than it ever has before and build for the marginal market — the 15 to 20 percent that has been set up as "no man's land."
In the past, private housing of adequate standards has not been produced in substantial amounts for rentals much below $35 a month.
Yet, of the 12,600,000 new homes that the National Housing Agency estimates will be required in the
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first 10 years of peace, 36 percent are needed for rent at $30 and below, and 22 percent at $20 and below.
Even if private industry changes its attitude toward this market and can bring building costs down by adopting new techniques so that it can reach into this lower-rent field, public housing will still have a tre- mendous job on its hands. The job will call not only for horizontal ex- pansion among the lowest-income group, but also for changes to make the program more serviceable in the postwar period, when and if Federal funds are made available. On the whole, a workable and desirable pat- tern has been developed under the U. S. Housing Act, which permits Federal financing up to 90 percent of the cost of low-rent housing projects, in addition to annual subsidies to make the housing available to low- income families. Experience, how- ever, has uncovered some weak- nesses that need to be strengthened.
For one thing, the U. S. Housing Act merely doffed its hat at the problem of restoring existing housing to a state of livability for low- income families. It did not recog- nize the higher annual cost of re- habilitation and therefore failed to provide the subsidy which is nec- essary, in addition to the antici- pated income from the housing, to take care of maintenance, operation and replacements and to amortize the debt during the life of the re- habilitated property.
I cannot agree with the assump- tion that rehabilitation will produce a large volume of housing for low- income families, but I am confident that we can save some housing that is not too far gone. The additional
annual cost of doing so is justified if we not only accomplish the aim of providing decent and sanitary hous- ing for families of low income but, at the same time, arrest or prevent the blight of an entire neighborhood.
A plan for the complete redevelop- ment of blighted areas would solve many problems involved in restor- ing existing houses. It would permit rehabilitation on the basis of sound planning, and eliminate the danger of perpetuating slum conditions through the restoration of houses in a neighborhood that is destined to continue down-hill.
Area redevelopment would also help to solve the housing problem of Negroes and other minority groups which have been forced into tight pockets of poverty and denied the opportunity to expand into areas that are necessary for decent living. A comprehensive redevelopment pro- gram would provide adequate space for all groups either within the area or elsewhere in the community. But whether or not large-scale rede- velopment is undertaken in the postwar period, communities must come to realistic grips with this problem. They must open up areas of living to all minority groups, not simply dump displaced people on top of an already over-crowded, rimmed-in quarter of town.
Rural slums are another of our housing ills that must come in for a major attack in the postwar period. More than half of all farm houses are below acceptable rural stand- ards. Yet, in spite of strenuous efforts, only 515 rural houses were included in the 105,000 low-rent units built before peace-time pro- grams were halted by the war, and
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only 7,891 others were under loan contract. This experience points up the difficulties of using an urban formula to produce a rural housing program and indicates the need for modifying the methods so that rural communities and farms can par- ticipate on an equal basis with ur- ban centers in a national housing program.
In addition to modifications which would be necessary to grapple real- istically with some of the neglected areas of public housing I have just mentioned, it is my personal opin- ion that the program as a whole could be made more effective if revisions to the U. S. Housing Act of 1937 were made to provide for 100 percent private financing of low-rent projects, and to reduce from 60 to 45 years the period dur- ing which the Federal Government is committed to pay annual con- tributions. These changes would permit a number of improvements in the program, reduce the ultimate cost to the government and expand the participation of private capital in public housing.
The program can also be strength- ened within the sphere of admin- istrative policies and functions. With nearly eight years of experi- ence behind them, local housing authorities have passed the stage where they needed a large amount of Federal direction. Most of them have now come of age and are fully capable of discharging the full and vital responsibilities that are theirs. As representatives for their com- munities, these local bodies must initiate, develop and manage hous- ing programs for their low-income people. For I am firmly and irrev-
ocably of the opinion that a public housing program must arise from the communities and not be im- posed upon them. This principle was enunciated in the U. S. Housing Act and it must be fully recognized by both the local community and the Federal administrative agency.
The Federal Government's part in the program is to make national re- sources available to local communi- ties to meet a local need. Its re- sponsibility is to see that the terms of the Act are met, to establish minimum standards of housing, and to serve local communities by pro- viding national leadership in the improvement of design, manage- ment, operation, administrative proc- esses and costs.
But the local housing authority is the mainspring of the program. To carry the community's housing re- sponsibility, this group must have certain essential characteristics and attitudes.
First, it must realize that it is a local body, that it was created for the betterment of the community, and that is its responsibility. It must never become subject to the idea that it was created to cater to the Federal will.
Second, it must recognize that it is a responsible public agent and be more concerned than anyone else with its own businesslike conduct and the observance of its contract. It must police itself and not look to some other public agency to de- velop a "gestapo" to preside over it.
Third, the local authority must be an integral part of the stream of community life, not an honored but insulated body for whom public housing has become a private pre-
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serve that neither touches nor is touched by others.
Fourth, the local authority should be the voice of the community in coping with its housing problems. It should offer leadership for those less able to speak for their own necessities and it should work with other leadership that seeks better housing for all. It should be diligent to graduate slum dwellers into de- cent housing but it should be equally diligent to graduate those in public housing into low-cost homes they can afford.
Finally, a local housing authority must be a dynamic body. It must not rest on the pride of a few proj- ects, confident that it has devel- oped a solution for the housing of low-income families. It should rest only when that solution has been applied all across the board and the problem itself has been solved.
The answer to our housing prob- lem lies in the local community. It lies in the action that will take place when the banker, the builder, the worker, the supplier, the city plan- ner and the representative of the local authority can sit around the table and plan to meet the needs of all the people. We'll find that pub- lic and private housing are not in competition with each other at al , but that, by stimulating the desire for good homes, one implements the other in achieving for housing a high place on the consumer's shopping list.
And if we think and act in terms of the whole community, the plans which make an impressive facade on the drawing boards will be trans- formed into reality — a reality of beautiful cities and towns attuned to the needs and wants of the people who live in them.
Recent Court Decisions
Compiled by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Counsel, APCA
Billboards in Business Zones
The zoning ordinance of the Town of Westport, Connecticut, excludes billboards from business zones "ex- cept as they (billboards) refer to the business conducted on the property on which they stand." Westport has a population of about 8,000 and is 90 percent residential. The New York-Boston Post Road, a very heavily traveled highway, is five miles long within the town and is zoned for its entire length for busi- ness. The evident purpose of the provision against billboards was to prohibit general outdoor advertising
on this important highway which, though zoned for business, is con- siderably used for residential pur- poses.
In an action to restrain the en- forcement of this ordinance, the Superior Court found for the out- door advertising company, chiefly on the ground that the provision as to billboards in business districts was unreasonable and that to distin- guish between types of advertising structures was an illegal discrimina- tion. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and sent the case back for further proceed-
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ings. Following are the chief points in the decision:
(1) The trial court did not have an accurate basis of fact for its de- cision and it could not decide as a question of law that the provision in the ordinance was invalid.
If we were to sustain this decision it would in effect be holding that as a matter of law the legislative body cannot, with such exceptions as are provided in the or- dinance before us, constitutionally pro- hibit billboards in the business zones of any of our towns, no matter what may be the circumstances or justification. We cannot so hold.
(2) The burden is on the outdoor advertising company in this case to show that in no circumstances can the provision in the ordinance be constitutional, and it has not sus- tained this burden.
(3) There is no discrimination, since signs referring to business con- ducted on the premises are sub- stantially different from signs which bear no relation to such business.
NOTE. It is highly desirable in neighborhood or limited-business districts to exclude the usual out- door advertising panels which have no reference to the business con- ducted in the business district. Consequently this decision which may be the first to rule on such an issue, has a special importance.
Murphy, Inc., et al. v. Town of West- port. Connecticut Supreme Court 40 Atl. 2nd, p. 177, November 1944.
Airport Zoning
An ordinance of the City of New- ark regulated the height of structures and of natural growth in the vicinity of the Newark Airport. In a case which brought in issue the con- stitutionality of this ordinance the court held that the purposes of zon-
ing as set out in the zoning amend- ment to the New Jersey Constitu- tion and in the enabling statutes did not include airport protection, and that since zoning for airport pro- tection was without authority of any statute, it must be regarded as a taking of property without due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitu- tion and a taking for public use without just compensation in viola- tion of the New Jersey Constitution. NOTE. This case is probably the first case in New Jersey where the question of the validity of airport zoning is raised, and it may be one of the first cases in the country.
Yara Engineering Corp. v. Gty of Newark. New Jersey Supreme Court 40 Atl. 2nd. p. 559, January 1945.
Combination of Uses in a Residence
District
A permit was granted for the use of a house in an A residence district as the dwelling and office of a rabbi and as a synagogue. The uses per- mitted in the district included one- family dwellings, professional offices of occupants of houses, and churches. It was argued that there was no per- mission for a combination of uses and that if such permission were given there could be all sorts of in- congruous uses of structures, that is, rooms for residence over railroad stations, or over a library or museum. Although the court granted that such incongruities might occur, it held that in the present case the combination was not incongruous, since the use of dwellings for re- ligious purposes was not unusual. Consequently the action of the Board of Adjustment in upholding
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the granting of the permit was con- firmed by the court.
Overbrook Farms Club et al. v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Supreme Court 40 Atl. 2nd: p. 423, January 1945.
Nursing Home in Residence District The plaintiff Grain operated a home for profit for not more than twelve patients. None of the pa- tients were hospital cases; that is, they were not sick enough for regu- lar nursing service nor were they cases of serious operations. An ap- plication for a permit to establish this home was made in a residence D district which allowed boarding and lodging houses and hospitals (but no veterinary hospitals) and clinics. The court found that the use ap- plied for was either a hospital in the common acceptation of the word or a boarding and lodging house; that it had some of the characteristics of both, and since the ordinance must be construed as permitting either, it must also be construed as permitting a use between the two. It conse- quently allowed the granting of the permit.
Grain v. City of Louisville. Kentucky Court of Appeals 182 S. W. 2nd. p. 787, October 1944.
Variance — Funeral Parlor in Resi- dence District
A variance had been granted for the use of a nineteen-room house in a residence A zone for a funeral par- lor. The only evidence of hardship on which the grant of permit de- pended was from real estate men who testified that there was no de- mand for such a property as a resi- dence in the locality and that conse- quently its continuance for residen- tial use amounted to a hardship on
the owners. The court held that this proof was sufficient to justify the variance and confirmed the granting of the permit.
NOTE. The granting of permit under these circumstances for busi- ness uses in residence districts would apparently greatly weaken the pro- tection for residential zones. If a permit could be granted for a funeral parlor certainly it could for rooming houses, boarding houses, and other uses to which residential properties might be put. The recommendation in such a case should be that either the zone should be changed by amendment or that the variance provision should be so defined as to prevent business uses of outmoded properties in residential zones.
Griggs et al. v. City of Paterson. New Jersey Supreme Court 39 Atl. 2nd. p. 231, October 1944.
Churches in Residence Districts
The zoning ordinance of the City of Sherman,Texas, excluded churches from residence districts and the de- fendant was enjoined from using a dwelling as a church. A lower court dissolved the injunction and this case was on appeal. In upholding this action the court said: "To ex- clude churches from residence dis- tricts does not promote health, safety, morals or the general wel- fare of the community, and to rele- gate churches to business and manu- facturing districts could conceivably be imposing a burden upon the free right to worship." The case was ap- parently the first of its kind in Texas, and the court was able to find few similar cases in other jurisdictions.
City of Sherman v. Simms. Texas Su- preme Court 183 S. W. 2nd. p. 415, Novem- ber 1944.
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IN MEMORIAM
ALFRED BETTMAN
1873-1945
Alfred Bettman died on January 21, 1945, at the age of 71. He was re- turning to Cincinnati from a trip to Washington and New York City to fulfill duty calls in behalf of city planning. In Washington he at- tended the meeting of the Board of Directors of the APCA and testified before the Taft Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Redevelopment of the Senate Special Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Plan- ning on legislative methods framed by him to rehabilitate depressed dis- tricts in our cities.
Mr. Bettman was active during his entire later life in devising and putting into operation statutes and ordinances to improve Cincinnati, and with Cincinnati as his labora- tory, he extended the results of his work to the whole country. He was president of the City Plan Commis- sion of his city of Cincinnati for many years and actively led this city work up to the time of his death.
When the Hon. Herbert Hoover was Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Bettman was appointed by him to serve on an advisory committee on framing the so-called standard zon- ing enabling act for State legislatures to use as a basis for the extension of zoning. He was a faithful member of this committee for about 5 years. The forms were printed and dis- tributed by the Department of Com- merce and greatly aided the enlarged use of city zoning. In these early days, the Euclid Village (Ohio) zon-
ing case arose in zoning in this coun- try. It was in doubt in the Supreme Court of the U. S. when Mr. Bett- man applied for permission to serve as amicus curiae in behalf of Euclid Village. The material placed before this court by Mr. Bettman is con- sidered by many to have brought the court to a unanimous decision in favor of upholding zoning. This was the turning point of zoning in this country. Before this overwhelming decision of the highest court there were more state court decisions against zoning than supporting it. Following this decision, States that had been adverse turned around. The courts of the entire country placed themselves behind reason- able zoning.
Mr. Bettman was well known in England as a practical helper in town planning. He made prolonged visits there both to study and to assist.
His statutory method for the re- habilitation of large depressed areas in cities has met with great favor throughout the state legislatures and at this writing is being con- sidered by many States that are seeking to help their cities in this difficult legal task.
During the last 30 years Cin- cinnati has made itself a leader among American cities. The work of Mr. Bettman was a large factor in attaining this prestige.
—EDWARD M. BASSETT. New York, N. Y
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CHARLES FOLLETT CONSAUL
1870-1945
Charles FoIIett Consaul, a valued, highly respected and much loved citizen of Washington, died on January 8, 1945, in the seventy- fifth year of his age. With the ex- ception of a few terms in public schools, he received his early educa- tion in the Sacramento (California) Seminary, and Oak Grove Academy (Medina, Michigan). He entered the Naval Academy, resigning at the end of two years from the Naval Service to return to civil life. He was a classmate of mine in the Class of 1891 at Annapolis and the friend- ships he formed while there among his classmates, and through his life, were many. He was Secretary of the Class at the time of his death and was the moving spirit in keeping this now small band of friends very closely united. While graduation was fifty-three years ago, through his warm friendship and effort the survivors living in Washington still have a monthly luncheon together and, through Mr. Consaul's interest, all were kept informed of the ac- tivities and welfare of the Class no matter where they were.
For eight years he was in the General Land Office in Washington and while there he studied law at the Columbian University (now George Washington University) and re- ceived the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1892, with honorable men- tion; Master of Laws in 1893, and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in that year. While in the Government Service he was co-compiler of the "Mineral Land Law Digest" (1897). He resigned
from Government Service in 1899 and began active practice of law in the mining camp of Cripple Creek, Colorado, but returned to Washing- ton in 1902 and lived here until the time of his death.
Mr. Consaul was always inter- ested in civic affairs. He was past President and Secretary of the Mount Pleasant Citizens' Associa- tion; for nine years Chairman of the Committee on Parks and Reserva- tions of the Washington Board of Trade; Vice-chairman of the Com- mittee of 100 on the Federal City of the American Planning and Civic Association. He was also a member of the Subcommittee of the Wash- ington Board of Trade and Acting Chairman of the Subcommittee which planned and produced the Condemnation Bill which was passed by the Congress practically as pre- sented by the Board of Trade, and is the present Condemnation Law regarding the acquisition by the United States of America, by pur- chase or condemnation, of land within the District of Columbia for erection of buildings or for parks, parkways, playgrounds or other public use. This important piece of work made possible the rapid de- velopment of parks and playgrounds for the citizens of the District.
He will be best remembered by the readers of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT and by his fellow members of the American Planning and Civic Association for his work as Vice-Chairman of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, under the Chairmanship of Hon. Frederic A.
66
Planning and Civic Comment
Delano. Mr. Consaul served until his resignation on account of ill health a short time before his death and he played an important part, under Mr. Delano, in assisting the passage by Congress of bills which have had so much to do with the or- derly growth and development of our National Capital. He was re-
cently honored by the Disrtrict Bar Association in recognition of his long service as an attorney.
Mr. Consaul was married in 1901 to Fannie F. Moyers, born in Mem- phis, Tennessee, daughter of Colonel Gilbert and Fannie Follett Moyers, who survives him.
—CHESTER WELLS, Captain, USN Retd. Washington, D. C.
Recent Publications
Compiled by KATHERINE McNAMARA, Librarian of the Departments of Land- scape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
AMERICAN COMMISSION FOR LIVING WAR MEMORIALS. Memorials that live; a brochure of suggestions concerning the use of recreational facilities as war me- morials, prepared by the American Com- mission for Living War Memorials co- operating with the National Committee on Physical Fitness of the Federal Se- curity Agency. [Columbus, Ohio], The Commission, 1944. 59 pages. IIIus.
THE AMERICAN LEGION. NATIONAL AMERICANISM COMMISSION. Living war memorials. Indianapolis, Ind., The Legion, Dec. 1944. 27 pages. IIIus., plans, chart.
BENNETT, HUGH H. Thomas Jefferson, soil conservationist. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 15 pages. IIIus., maps (one colored). (U. S. Soil Con- servation Service. Miscellaneous Pub- lication No. 548.) Price 10 cents.
DARLING, JAY N. "DiNG." "Poverty or conservation your national problems." Washington, National Wildlife Federa- tion, [1944?]. 29 pages. Price 10 cents.
DUFFUS, R. L. The valley and its people: a portrait of TVA. Illustrations by the Graphics Department of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Charles Krutch, chief. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. 167 pages. IIIus. Price $2.75.
GREAT BRITAIN. CENTRAL HOUSING AD- VISORY COMMITTEE. DESIGN OF DWELLINGS SUB-COMMITTEE, AND GREAT BRITAIN. MINISTRY OF TOWN AMD COUNTRY PLANNING. STUDY GROUP. Design of dwellings; report of the De- sign of Dwellings Sub-Committee . . ., and report of a Study Group ... on site planning and layout in relation to hous- ing. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 75 pages. Diagrs., tables. Price Is. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AND GREAT BRITAIN. MINISTRY OF WORKS.
Housing manual, 1944. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 102 pages. IIIus., plans, diagrs. Price 2s. Also Technical appendices
HANSON, EARL, AND PAUL BECKETT. Los Angeles: its people and its homes. Los Angeles, Calif., The Haynes Foundation, 1944. 206 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps (one folded), tables.
HIGGINS, BENJAMIN. The United States public work reserve. Montreal, Inter- national Labour Office, 1944. 22 pages. Tables. Price 10 cents.
Reprinted from the International La- bour review, Nov. 1944.
HILBERSEIMER, L. The new city: prin- ciples of planning. With an introduction by Mies van der Rohe. Chicago, Paul Theobald, 1944. 192 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, diagrs. Price $5.95.
ICKES, HAROLD L. Missouri River Basin: conservation, control, and use of water resources of the Missouri River Basin in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kan- sas, Iowa, and Missouri . . . April 1944 . . . Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 211 pages. Maps (part folded), tables, charts (part folded). (U. S. Con- gress. 78th. 2d Session. Senate. Docu- ment No. 191.)
JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Thomas Jefferson's garden book, 1766-1824, with relevant extracts from his other writings; an- notated by Edwin Morris Betts. Philadel- phia, The American Philosophical So- ciety, 1944. 704 pages. IIIus., plans, diagrs., tables. (Memoirs of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, vol. 22, 1944.) Price, $5.00.
THE JOURNAL OF HOUSING, vol. 1:1, to date. Chicago, National Association of Housing Officials, Oct. 1944 to date Monthly. Subscription $4.00 a year.
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Planning and Civic Comment
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNERS, vol. 10:1 to date. Cambridge Mass., The Institute, autumn 1944 to date. Published four times a year. Sub- scription $2.00 year.
A continuation of the Planners' Journal.
"LIVING MEMORIALS." Living memorials. Washington, The author, 1944. [8] pages. IIIus.
McViTTiE, J. A. An avalanche hits Rich- mond; a study of the impact of war pro- duction upon the city of Richmond, California, and an outline of measures necessary to provide the facilities for normal postwar community service. Richmond, Calif., July 1944. 141 pages. Mimeographed. Maps (part folded), tables, charts.
MATHER, KIRTLEY F. Enough and to spare: mother earth can nourish every man in freedom. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1944. 186 pages. Map (folded), tables, charts. Price $2.00.
MOSES, ROBERT, AND OTHERS. Baltimore arterial report. [Baltimore, Md.], Oct. 1944. 37 pages. IIIus., maps (part folded), plans (part folded), cross sec- tions.
MUSHAM, H. A. The technique of the ter- rain: maps and their use in the field in peace and war. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1944. 228 pages. IIIus., maps, diagrs., tables, charts. Price $3.85.
PRODUCERS' COUNCIL, INC. POSTWAR COMMITTEE. Toward a postwar housing program, prepared and issued for con- sideration in determining suitable post- war housing legislation and other forms of implementation. Washington, The Council, 1944. 98 pages. Lithoprinted. Tables. Price $1.00.
REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION, INC. The economic status of the New York metro- politan region in 1944. New York, The Association, 1944. 91 pages. Map, tables, charts. Price $3.50.
SMITH, R. A. L. Bath. With 84 illustra- tions from engravings, paintings, and
photographs by Paul Fripp, and others. London, B. T. Batsfbrd, Ltd., 1944. 1 17 pages. IIIus. (part colored). Price 12s. 6d.
STONOROV, OSCAR, AND Louis I. KAHN. You and your neighborhood; a primer. New Yo,rjk, Revere Copper and Brass Inc., 1944. Unpaged. IIIus., plans, diagrs., tables.
SYRACUSE-ONONDAGA POST-WAR PLAN- NING COUNCIL. Community facilities; preliminary. Syracuse, The Council, Apr. 1944. Unpaged. Mimeographed. Tables.
. Public participation kit.
Syracuse, The Council, [1944]. 5 pam- phlets in envelope. IIIus.
U. S. BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE. INQUIRY REFERENCE SER- VICE. Regional post-war planning. Washington, The Bureau, Apr. 1944. 87 pages. Mimeographed. Maps, tables.
U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRA- TION. National airport plan. Washing- ton, The Administration, 1944. 35 pages. Mimeographed. Tables, charts.
U. S. NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY. Hous- ing costs: where the housing dollar goes. Washington, The Agency, Dec. 1944. 48 pages. Tables, chart. (Na- tional Housing Bulletin 2.) Price 10 cents.
. Housing needs; a pre- liminary estimate. Washington, The Agency, Nov. 1944. 23 pages. Tables. (National Housing Bulletin 1.) Price 10 cents.
U. S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. Informa- tion relating to the national park sys- tem. [Washington], Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 44 pages. Tables.
URBAN PLANNING CONFERENCES, BALTI- MORE, MD., 1943. Evergreen House, 1943. Report of the Urban Planning Conferences under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1944. 245 pages. IIIus., maps, plan (folded). Price $2.75.
68
Planning and Civic Comment
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page Citizen Support for Planning and Development 1-12
Editorial Comment
Unfinished Business — From One Postwar Period to Another . 13
The Central Valley of California 17-22
The Antiquities Act Must Be Saved 23-25
No Power on the Potomac 26
Acknowledgments . 26
Parks— Pictorial Section 27-42
State Park Notes 43-46
Heard About Jackson Hole? 47-56
Changes in the State Planning Boards 57
Commentaries 58-60
Strictly Personal 61
Watch Service Report 62
Book Reviews 63-67
Recent Publications .... . 67-68
APRIL 1945
SECOND QUARTER— APRIL-MAY-JUNE
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
Official Organ of: American Planning and Civic Association, National Conference on State Parks
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD
HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS HENRY V. HUBBARD
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HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW GEORGE INGALLS
EDWARD M. BASSETT RAYMOND F. LEONARD
RICHARD E. BISHOP THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RUSSELL V. BLACK ROBERTS MANN
PAUL V. BROWN J. HORACE MCFARLAND
STRUTHERS BURT HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM KATHERINE MCNAMARA
GEORGE L. COLLINS HAROLD MERRILL
MARSHALL N. DANA MARVIN C. NICHOLS
S. R. DEBOER JOHN NOLEN, JR.
EARLE S. DRAPER F. A. PITKIN
NEWTON B. DRURY HUGH R. POMEROY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o ISABELLE F. STORY
L. C. GRAY L. DEMING TILTON
S. HERBERT HARE BEN H. THOMPSON
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY TOM WALLACE CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
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EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 1
April, 1945
No. 2
Citizen Support for Planning and Development*
By CHARLES W. ELIOT, Director, Haynes Foundation
The American genius for organ- ization and yet more organization has produced a great variety of forms and procedures for support of planning and development of our cities and metropolitan areas. We have our official governmental agen- cies and we have strictly private unofficial citizen groups — and in between, there is every conceivable combination of public and private interests.
This statement is an effort to explore the experience of Los An- geles and other communities in the organization of unofficial or private citizen support for official agencies.
I. Great Variety and Number oj
Citizen Organizations We have and we need several types of citizen support for planning and development. First of all, we must have enthusiasm. On that score the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the All Year Club are famous the world around as successful "booster" organizations. We have many citizens' committees and groups; in fact, I have heard it said in Los Angeles that we have a citizens' committee on every major problem before our local govern- ments today. They are a useful and effective device to get discussion and consideration of these problems by the voters.
Another type of citizen organiza- tion might be called the special interest group — citizens organized because of their profession or trade, like the architects, contractors, real- tors, the building trades or the telesis group; or perhaps some of us have a special interest because we are automobile owners and members of an automobile club. Business interests are similarly represented in the private associations which con- centrate in particular areas like the Central Business Association, the Downtown Business Men's Asso- ciations, or the Miracle Mile Asso- ciation, the local Chambers of Commerce, or such special agencies as the South Bay Beach and High- way Association.
Still another kind of organization of citizen interest comes about as a kind of by-product of other activi- ties, as for example, through the interest in public affairs of the Ser- vice Clubs, Women's Clubs, League of Women Voters, Town Hall, and similar groups.
Citizen committees for particular projects have one special advantage over any general organization like the Chamber of Commerce, that on any particular project, it is often possible to combine individuals and groups which agree on that one
*Based Upon Paper Presented in Series on Plans for Los Angeles Central Library April 23, 1945.
Planning and Civic Comment
subject and not much else. This is another version of the old story that "politics makes strange bedfellows"; so also does the "project" method of organization.
This general list of the varieties of citizen organizations for the sup- port of planning has necessarily omitted a great many which will readily occur to those familiar with any local scene.
II. Citizen Interest in the Steps of Planning
Each of these various types of organization has its own kinds of usefulness in the process of planning and development. Perhaps we should look for a moment at the stages in that process and see how citizens' interest is involved in the successive steps. Nowadays, when planning is under attack and so often misrepresented, it is important to be clear just what we mean by the term. For convenience and sim- plicity, I have often stated the steps in the planning process as seven in number:
1. Statement oj the problem and formulation of an hypothesis, or in military terms "an estimate of the situation" and designation of ob- jectives or goals.
2. Research and fact finding to clarify the problem and to prove or revise the hypothesis.
3. Design, plan, or integration of related proposals to make a picture or plan which is consistent, balanced and convincing, something worth striving to achieve.
4. Program or order of events to execute finance and administer the steps to achieve the plan.
5. Approval or modification of the plan and program by the voters or their elected representatives.
6. Carrying out the plan by the appropriate administrative agencies (public and private) and
7. Constant review and revision of the whole process because planning is a continuous process whenever it is applied to a living organism or a changing situation.
If those seven steps describe the process for which we want citizen support, let's take a look at how citizen groups can help at each of these seven stages:
1. Statement of the problem and goals. It is obvious that all citizens have a responsibility to participate in this first step of the planning process. We should all have ideas as to what we want for ourselves and for our community. That is the essence of democracy. In this step we are in truth equal in our rights and in our responsibilities. Since we cannot all speak at once or all be active at once, we have evolved political procedures or ways of sifting out leaders and ideas for discussion and action. We rely heavily on the qualities of leadership which "see visions" and formulate issues. To a degree, we delegate our individual responsibility to our leaders in both our public affairs and also in the multifarious private organizations of business, labor, women's clubs, etc., etc.
Any attempt to organize or con- trol this free process of democratic action should, of course, be fought as we fight Nazism and Fascism, but it is quite proper, in full recog- nition of our faith and democracy, to ask greater consideration by our
Planning and Civic Comment
public and private organizations and by their chosen leaders of the problems of urban life and city development. In particular, we look to our local officials, mayors, and councilmen, to our county super- visors, and of course, more than to any others, to the official planning agencies of cities and counties. All the rest of us must prod and poke and otherwise exercise our respon- sibilities as citizens to state our problems and to designate our ob- jectives. We can help by suggestions and criticisms, supporting those who submit suggestions we think good, and urging consideration of our own proposals.
2. The second step in the plan- ning process is fact finding and re- search. Here we are by no means equal. We eek facts as unbiased as is humanly possible, but as meaning- ful as possible. We want impartial agencies of research. In this stage a citizen organization like the Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles can be usefu .
It is significant perhaps that im- partial research on urban problems has almost always in the past got its primary support from foundations and universities. Thus, the begin- ning of the Regional Plan of New York came out of the efforts of the Russell Sage Foundation to provide a collection of basic facts on the future of New York and its Envir- ons. The recent movement to estab- lish the Allegheny Conference, studying the future of the metro- politan area around Pittsburgh, is centered at the University of Pitts- burgh. The prize-winning plan sub- mitted in the recent Boston Contest came from a group of professors at
Harvard University. In Los Ange- les, the Haynes Foundation has con- centrated its activities on a research and education program dealing with the metropolitan area. The Trustees have sought to bring together the facts as to our economic, social, and governmental situation in the ex- pectation that out of those materials might grow understanding and ap- preciation of the possibilities for achievement of new goals in urban living.
But private organizations cannot, in any way, substitute for the re- search work of official planning agencies. Those agencies must be in a position to secure the basic data to support and enrich their planning proposals. Most planning agencies have had altogether too little time and money available for this im- portant fact-finding part of their work. Accordingly, citizen organ- izations supporting planning have concentrated on securing more ade- quate appropriations for research by official planning agencies. For ex- ample, the Citizens Planning Asso- ciation of Cincinnati secured a $250,000 appropriation for their official City Planning Commission. However, there is a special obliga- tion upon supporting private groups to supplement and fill out the re- search program which is needed for a well-rounded picture of the needs and possibilities of city development.
Another aspect of this research stage in the planning process which we should not forget is the desir- ability of a variety of approaches to the same problems. For many years, I have heard planning research attacked as involving duplication of effort. The "efficiency boys'* do not
Planning and Civic Comment
seem to be able to understand the simple truth that honest research in the same field and on the same problem might turn up, not just one answer but several alternatives. Some duplication of research ac- tivities, therefore, is desirable for the protection of our liberties and to assure full consideration of new ideas or second thoughts.
3. The integration of related pro- posals is the essence oj planning. That is the job of our official plan- ning agencies, but to do that job effectively, they need additional tools and procedures. They can get those additional procedures only through citizen support and under- standing of the problems. Every Metropolitan Area is now concerned over how to get coordination of public works projects initiated by Federal, state, and local govern- ments. It may give us encourage- ment to learn that the new Metro- politan Planning Association of St. Louis is concentrating its attention on development of a coordinated plan of public works for the inter- state region which that group serves.
Among the hundreds of govern- mental jurisdictions and agencies in Los Angeles County, there is no effective clearing house or procedure for the integration of plans. Perhaps the most significant effort in that direction is represented by the Planning Congress of Los Angeles County, but even that organization is incomplete in its coverage and effectiveness since it includes only the local governments of the area and has no power to compel even their participation in this design stage of the planning process.
4. For the programming stage oj
planning we are even less well pro- vided with the tools to secure co- ordination in timing, finance, and administration of the steps to achieve our plans. Dr. George W. Bemis of the Haynes Foundation has suggested a new coordinating body with authority from all the governments involved — city, county, state, and Federal. Obviously, no such new coordinating agency will be established without a great deal of pressure from citizen groups — in brief, by voters bringing pressure to bear upon their elected repre- sentatives at all these levels of government.
5. The fifth step in the planning process was outlined as approval or modification oj the plan and pro- gram by the voters or their elected representatives. Here, of course, is the place where citizen support is most important. On the one hand, we need to organize pressure groups for the support of individual proj- ects like the Shoreline Planning Association on beach projects or the Greater Los Angeles Citizens Com- mittee which is now pushing for a civic auditorium; and on the other hand, we need balancing groups to compel adequate consideration, re- view, and checking of projects in the public interest. In this role of caution, we recognize such agencies as the Tax Payers Association and other protective groups. Citizens interested in the support of planning will be found in both camps pressing for action to carry out what they conceive to be well-designed in- dividual projects, but always in- sisting on the basic test that any individual project shall be part of a comprehensive scheme for the de-
Planning and Civic Comment
velopment of the whole community. 6. When it is decided what we are going to do and how we are going to do it, the citizens who are supporting planning and development are still not through with their job and re- sponsibility. Someone must watch and keep alert and see to it that the plans are carried out by the appro- priate public and private agencies in the spirit in which they were in- tended and that they do not get distorted or out of line with other related projects.
Too many people think of city building as primarily a series of actions by public agencies, but it will take only a moment of thought to realize that most of the building in urban areas is done by private owners and not by the public at all. That thought leads to the whole complex of problems on how to stimulate and encourage the right kind of private action for com- munity development in accordance with a general plan instead of rely- ing, as we too often do, on the re- strictions and controls of planning laws. In a country believing in in- dividual freedom and enterprise, we should always be looking for new ways to support and stimulate pri- vate provision of needed develop- ments and improvements. In this aspect of planning, there is a new and relatively unexplored field of great usefulness for citizen planning organizations.
7. Finally, in these stages of the planning process, we should stress the importance of continuous re- visions and review. A plan for a city is a living thing, never completed, always requiring adjustment or change. Over and over again in the
history of planning for American cities, we see the same story re- peated, a big push by a citizen movement to get a plan, a plan drawn, and the report made. Then everyone relaxes; but before the ink dried, that plan was out of date and in need of modification and re- vision. Our public planning agencies fully realize this quality of plans in all of their activities, but they need the support of citizen organizations to keep that idea constantly before the voters and the legislative bodies who control their appropriations and programs of work.
From this review of the stages of planning and the kind of citizen support which is needed at each stage, there is much evidence of good beginnings in many metropolitan areas, but our accomplishments are by no means adequate to the task. In the hope of getting some new ideas and to profit by the experience of other efforts to organize citizen support of planning, I have recently written to friends in most of the principal metropolitan centers of this country and they have been most generous in their replies. Let me review now some of the things I have learned from that corre- spondence that may be applicable to your situation in whatever metro- politan area you may be interested.
III. Experience of Other Cities
As we might expect, most of the efforts to establish and develop plans for American cities have had their origin in some citizen organization or citizens' movement. That is the way we are accustomed to do things in this country. Here are some ex- amples of how it works.
Planning and Civic Comment
Chicago: We usually figure that the period of modern city planning began with the "Plan of Chicago" which was initiated and paid for by a little group in the Commercial Club. It was they who employed Daniel Burham and printed that handsome and much quoted volume in 1909. That was the beginning of the Chicago Plan Commission and of a long series of successful bond issues and public improvements which resulted in the development of the Lake Front and Michigan Avenue. The educational program under the leadership of Walter D. Moody, who wrote Wackers Man- ual, provided citizens' support for those continuing programs.
When the time came to spread the planning effort beyond the city limits, the same pattern of action was repeated with the leadership of the Civic Club, Universities, Mu- nicipalities, Counties, and the Asso- ciation of Commerce. A citizens' organization called a "Regional Planning Association" was begun in 1923. That association is still going strong with a budget this year of $35,400 and five full time employees on its temporarily reduced staff. Like many other similar citizens' organizat ons in support of planning, the Chicago Regional Planning Asso- ciation receives part of its funds, $22,000, from the several counties, part from contributions of cor- porations, particularly public ser- vice corporations, and part from membership dues of municipalities and individuals.
New York: The men who initiated the Plan of Chicago, Charles D. Norton and Frederic A. Delano, applied the same energy to get
something started in New York. You will remember that it was in 1921 that the Russell Sage Founda- tion launched a great research and planning program which produced the "Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs" and which has continued through the "Regional Plan Association, Inc." To the credit of that group goes the charter amendment which established the City Planning Agency for New York and the constant pressure and stimulation of planning endeavors by cities and counties of the sur- rounding area in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Washington, D. C.: Again Mr. Delano led the way in Washington where he spearheaded the move- ment for establishment of the Na- tional Capital Park and Planning Commission as chairman of the "Committee of 100 on the Federal City" — a citizens' group working out of the offices of the then American Civic Association and in close har- mony with the Board of Trade. That committee has continued through the years since the merger in 1935 of the National Conference on City Planning and the American Civic Association to form the Ameri- can Planning and Civic Association and is now headed by Associate Justice Owen Roberts of the U. S. Supreme Court who succeeded Mr. Delano in 1944. Because of the impoitance to all Americans of the National Capital, a special "Joint Committee on the National Capital" was organized in 1943 with repre- sentatives from the American Fed- eration of Arts, Institute of Archi- tects, Institute of Planners, Plan- ning and Civic Association, Society
Planning and Civic Comment
of Civil Engineers, Society of Land- scape Architects, Garden Club of America, the National Association of Real Estate Boards, Society of Sculptors, and the Society of Mural Painters. Recently still another citizens' organization called the "Citizens Council for Community Planning" has been organized in Washington composed of twenty- seven local organizations to serve as a clearing house in the District of Columbia.
All of these citizen efforts in support of planning the National Capital are carried on with very small financial resources and with consequent difficulty. The fact that the citizens of Washington have no vote, and that the leading figures of each administration have their local loyalties elsewhere, and that under the Constitution, Congress is re- sponsible for all legislation concern- ing the District of Columbia, has put an obligation on citizens all over the country to support ade- quate plans for our National Capital.
Philadelphia: Another city with a long record of planning enthusiasm and activity is Philadelphia where the Fairmount Park and Art Asso- ciation took the lead many years ago for the construction of the Fair- mount Parkway, for improvement of the Schuylkill River, and for the new Pennsylvania Railroad Station. In the twenties under the leadership of Colonel Samuel P. Wetherill, the Tristate Regional Planning Project was launched with the support of Philadelphia business interests who contributed generously to the re- search undertakings and for prep- aration of a regional plan. More recently, a "Citizens Council on
City Planning" made up of delegates from important civic and social service organizations has secured the reorganization and invigoration of the City Planning Commission and continues as an active influence for the support of the Commission's work. It is interesting that they operate with a budget of $13,000 which is supplied as a part of the United War Chest.
Buffalo: Another of the older citizens' organizations for support of planning is the Buffalo City Plan- ning Association, Inc. — set up in 1921 and justly proud of its ac- complishments and assistance on such projects as the Civic Center, County Parks, Recreation Survey and the re-activating of the City Planning Commission. The Asso- ciation calls attention in its regular bulletin to the fact that contribu- tions to its work are deductible from income taxes; and the Association itself is exempt from Federal In- come Tax, Capital Stock Tax, and Employment Taxes. Its latest suc- cess was "Civic Planning Week" reported in the April issue of Ameri- can City.
Detroit: The close alignment of housing and planning is reflected in such organizations as the Regional Association of Cleveland* and the Citizens Housing and Planning Council of Detroit. The Detroit Council again receives support from the Community War Chest. It is currently sponsoring "Detroit Plans Its Future" — a discussion series with speakers at the city libraries.
In the last two years a number of cities have established different
*For account of Cleveland Regional Association see Nat. Municipal Review, May 1945, p. 223-229
Planning and Civic Comment
forms of citizen organization for support of planning. One reason for this new interest may be the two contests which offered prizes for suggestions as to form and proced- ures for citizen participation in planning: — ' 'Organization for Met- ropolitan Planning" in 1943 and "The Boston Contest" in 1944.
Whatever the stimulus, recent organizations include the Citizens' Planning Association of Cincinnati, the Louisville Area Development Association, the Kansas City Citi- zens Planning Council, the St. Louis Metropolitan Planning Association, the Allegheny Conference of Pitts- burgh, the Citizens Planning Coun- cil of Greater San Jose, the Pasadena Citizens' Council for Planning, and the Syracuse-Onondaga Planning Council. They are all going concerns with a variety of combinations of organization and financing, but they all show the need for some sort of continuing citizens' support for the planning activities of official agen- cies. From the materials generously provided by the secretaries and directors of these various organiza- tions, a kind of summary chart has been compiled which shows their name, origin, organization, budget, sources of funds, staff, and program.
This review might be summarized in these terms :
1. That the planning and de- velopment of our cities and met- ropolitan areas reflects in large measure the degree and effectiveness of citizen organization and support of planning activities. The endurance and the increasing number of citizens' organizations for this purpose in all major cities of the country show the value and need for these efforts.
2. That, however useful a multi- tude of citizens' agencies may be, there is need for some one group or combination of these separate units into a Council, Association, Con- ference, or Committee which puts the idea of "planning" forward as its principal concern. It doesn't seem to matter what name this combined effort goes under — provided three ideas are emphasized — that:
a. This is a joint effort in which many groups participate and which supports and does not im- pinge on the separate and specialized activities of those par- ticipating;
b. This is an effort for planning and development to assist and sup- port the official planning agencies of cities and counties; and
c. This effort is concerned with the region, metropolitan area or greater influence of the city, rather than with just some part or segment of the urban area.
3. That this needed joint effort has been and can be successfully initiated from a variety of sources — official action of public bodies, the drive and public spirit of individuals or groups, the forces of business and enterprise, particularly the public utilities and major industries — a, combination of existing citizen or- ganizations, newspapers, and in- stitutions or foundations.
4. That these same forces are naturally the most likely to be will- ing and able to finance a joint effort to support planning and develop- ment. Among the cities which pro- vided information on this score there are records of substantial ap- propriations of public funds, allo- cations from the Community Chest,
8
Planning and Civic Comment
contribution from local branches of the Committee for Economic De- velopment, funds from banks, clear- ing houses, newspapers, industries, utilities, law firms, department stores, chambers of commerce, uni- versities, foundations and, of course, public spirited citizens, all both in large sums and as members' dues.
5. That a full time staff is needed and that to get an adequate staff, assurance should be given for the continuation of the project and financial support for at least two years. That means a min'mum for a small city of about $10,000 a year p us contributed space and services, up to much larger sums according to the size of the city, the scope of the program, and the number of special projects involved.
6. That a minimum program in- volves three types of activity:
a. For organization, financing, and operation of the council with constant fostering of participating agencies.
b. For public relations activities with a news-letter, press contacts, possibly radio programs and oper- ation of a speakers bureau.
c. For a research staff to de- velop new materials supplement- ing the efforts of public planning agencies.
IV. A Citizens Planning Council for Metropolitan Los Angeles
We should have a Citizens Plan- ning Organization for the Los Ange- les Metropolitan Area. It might grow out of an existing organization like Town Hall or the Planning Congress or the Greater Los Angeles Citizens Committee; or perhaps we need to start fresh.
Five different combinations of people and groups should be brought together; we need —
(1) Provision for clearance or coordination among official planning agencies of municipal, county, state, and Federal governments.
(2) Continuance and Develop- ment of the Planning Congress as an unofficial agency to bring to- gether members and staff of the many planning agencies.
(3) A way to pool the efforts and resources of many existing private organizations in support of planning and development.
(4) Recognition and regular inter- change of information among the tecbniciansy planners, architects, en- gineers, etc.
(5) Encouragement of participa- tion in planning activities by in- dividuals including both the public spirited and privately interested citizen.
We want all five groups in what- ever new organization is set up.
The Program of the new council should provide the three branches of activity drawn from experience in other cities, and such a program might be expanded to provide:
1. Organization, Finance, and Re- lations with Participating Agencies, under an Executive Secretary who would be responsible for meetings, memberships, collection of dues and contributions, office management, and accounts and particularly the organization and fostering of com- mittees with participation from other related organizations.
This part of the new council might service:
a. The Los Angeles Regional
Council, originally established by
Compilation oj Information
Name
Chicago
Reg. Planning Assn.
New York Regional Plan Assn. Inc.
Origin & Organization Budget
City Club 1923— Universi- $35,400 ties, Counties, Assn. of Com- merce, Local Plan Corns. & Chambers of Commerce 1921— Sage Foundation 55,000
Sources
$22,000 Counties, Corps — mfg., Pub. Service Munici- pal $10 — $50 dues Individuals $10 Contributions and Member- ships
Philadelphia Citiz. Council on City Planning
Washington, D. C.
(1) Joint Com. on Nat'I. Capital
(2) Com. of 100 on the Federal Citv
(3) Gt. Coun/for Com. PI. Buffalo, N. Y. City Planning Assn., Inc.
Detroit, Michigan Cit.Housing&PIan- ning Council
1943— Delegates from 88 5,300-13,000
member orgs. elect Bd. of
Directors
1943—10 National technical and civic organizations
1923 — Am. Civic Assn. (now
APCA)
1944—27 local organizations 10,000
and individual members
1921— Exec. Com. of 10 8,000
1936— Prof. Social, Civic & 30,000 Business groups. Bd. of 30 Directors
United War Chest Organ- ization Dues $300
Sale of tiles, with map of Washington and occasional assessments APCA
Contributions and Member- ships
Dues — memership Indiv., Official Bodies Banks — Utilities Dues, War Chest, & under- writing for specific projects
Cleveland
Reg.Assn.of Cleve- land
Cincinnati City Planning Assn.
Louisville . Area Devel. Assn.
Kansas City Cit. Planning Coun- cil Los Angeles
(1) Greater L.A. Citizens Com., Inc.
(2) Regional Council
St. Louis
Metropolitan Plan- ning Assn. San Jose
Cit. Planning Coun- cil of Greater San Jose
Pasadena
Citiz. Council for Planning
Syracuse
Syr.-OnondagaPost- war Planning Coun- cil
1937 — Industry, civic, busi- ness, labor & government backgrounds
1943 — Bettman — Corpora- tions and A.F. of L. Building Trades
Oct. 1943— Courier Journal, Mayor, Chairman Planning Com.
4 Mayors & 4 Pres. Cham, of Com. 5 counties advisory, 100 Governors
Feb. 1943— Mowder— Ben- nett— Winnett.
1944— State Recon. & Re- empl. Com.
1944— Eng. Arch. Producers1 Council, Wash. Univ. City officials Cham, of Commerce 1943 Impetus— Coord. Com. on Soc. Welfare Council authorized City Council
1943 — From lectures spon- sored by League of Women Voters. Advisory Board fea- ture. 1943— Set up by Mayor
10
13,000 + space
40,000
30,000
38,500 1 yr. & 4 mos.
9,000
1,200 & Vol. Services
Project basis
Dues $5— $1000
$250+ Banks, Insurance, Soap, law firms. No fees for partic. agencies, Indiv. $2.00
Newspapers, radio, gas & electr., largest bank, Labor unions, & approp. thru Planning Commission From 100 outstanding big business firms
Banks, Dept. Stores & Utilities
Dues.
Cham, of Commerce, Bd. of Education, Chest, Rosen- berg Foundation, & local industry Dues $1-$100 9 patrons
Spent $35,000 since 1943^ mostly public appropria- tions
Based on Replies to Questions
Staff
5 — General Mgr.
Sec. & Steno.
Audit.
Eng.-Draft. 14 — Exec.Dir;Dir. of Econ. Studies & 2 assts; Assoc. PI. Eng. & 3 assts ; Sec. , Edit & 4 stenos. 4 — Exec. Sec. ; Adm. Asst. & 2 part time
from APCA
part-time and vol- unteer 1 Asst. Sec-Treas.
4 full— Dir., Mem- bership Sec.; and 2 secretaries 3 part — Informa- mationDir. ; Visual Aids & Secretarial
3 — Exec. Sec. Steno. Public Relations
5 — Dir.; Assist.;
Public. & 2 sees. & part time con- sulant 4 — two men (Exec.
Dir.) two women
2— Exec. Sec. & Engr. 18 Techni- cians in 4 groups
Program
Service to cities, counties, States & private — on plan objective, harmonizing and tech- niques
Economic Studies, Airports, Land Use, County Consult., Printed Reports and Reg. Plan Bulletin
(1) Public Improvements, (2) Ways & Means, (3) Regional, (4) Membership, (5) Speakers Panel — News letter, conferences, exhibit, special reports on projects Representation of Nat'I societies to assist Nat'I Cap. Park & Planning Com.
Sponsored legislation for Parks & Planning.
Cooperates with NCPPC.
Planning legislation. Educational forums
Publication "City Planning" — formerly "City Facts" — now in Vol. XIX — many committees
Education, Research through 27 working com- mittees
Charter Amendment to reorg. City PI. Com.
WPA Project for Land Use Survey. Various
publications & "Plan Bulletin"
250,000 approp. to City PI.
Forums with A. I. A. & Engineers
Newspaper releases
Monthly News. Supplies Speakers
Monthly "Planning" — Eleven committees
CED type of committee
Hospital — Flood, Highway, Air, Soil
Committees — Research, Transportation Bus. & Ind., Cultural, Social Welfare, Legislation & Taxation, Urban Development (1) Shoreline (2) Parkways (3) Industrial Audit (4) Urban Redevelopment
Special Metropolitan Area in 3 States
9 Committees of Board Ac- tive
Reorg. of City PI. Com. 1943 CoSperation of Ch. of Com. BIdg. Trades.
Annual Meeting with NCPPC Organization action by mail, Active current program. Monthly meetings.
Monthly council, occasional public meetings. "Civic Planning Week" — set April "The American City"
Detroit Today & Tomorrow
Activities now largely through Postwar Planning Coun. of Greater Cleveland Metropolitan
CoSperate & assist existing agencies. Radio next fall
Folded June 1944 still legally alive
2 — Exec.Sec. &
Asst.
Public Works, Legislation Region News
6 counties interstate
2 — Exec.Dir.;Sec. Unified Health Services; County M'g'r Activities becoming county- & Spec. Assts. Govt.; Youth Problems; Soil Conservation; wide in several fields for 3 projects Library; Parking Surveys; Exhibit.
1 — Part time Exec. Monthly Meetings — Flyers on Problems & Sec. Distrib. of other material. Current activity
on Parking and Freeways.
Nominal — 3 Now editing and publishing reports
groups — -Research
& Planning Ways
& Means Public
Participation
11
Radio — "Syracuse on Trial'
Planning and Civic Comment
the State Reconstruction and Reemployment Commission to permit its development in com- bination with the County Mo- bilization Office into the clearing house of official agencies.
b. The Planning Congress and the useful work it is already doing.
c. Committees on particular problems and fields of interest such as Highways, Employment, Airports, etc., bringing together representatives of special interests and the existing organizations supporting those causes.
d. Either in combination or separate from these functional committees service to groups of technicians like the architects, engineers, sociologists, economists who may be organized or become interested in these matters.
e. The fostering of chapters or local groups on an area basis, tying in organizations like the Pasaderia Citizens Council, the Los Feliz Improvement Asso- ciation, local chambers of com- merce, etc.
It is evident from this list that there is plenty of "organization" work ahead of an Executive Secre- tary of a Los Angeles Metropolitan Planning Association.
2. The second part of our pro- gram might be called Public Relations including:
a. Operation of a speakers' bureau.
b. A weekly broadsheet of news.
c. Newspaper releases and mag- azine articles.
d. Organization of Institutes, Lectures, and Discussion Groups.
e. A radio program.
f. An annual exhibit — Los An-
geles Future — possibly opening at
the County Museum and then
on t be road among the cities of the
Metropolitan area.
g. Editing and publishing
research reports.
h. Motion picture presentation
of plans in various forms.
i. Use of these materials in the
Public Schools, Libraries, etc.
The very first item in this pro- gram might be a competition for the best name for our new organization.
3. The third, and to my mind the most important, part of the new organization's program should be devoted to Planning Research. The very modest program now under way at the Haynes Foundation is indicative of the kind of service which might be developed. That Program stresses aspects of plan- ning which are basic to the work of the official planning agencies, but beyond the scope of their authority or funds —
a. Economic studies— what makes the community tick? What are the sources of income and employ- ment?
b. Social studies of community living, associations, loyalties, or- ganizations;
c. Governmental studies for bet- ter coordination and more effect- ive service to the people by our complicated system of govern- ments in the metropolitan area; and
d. Physical planning proposals bringing together and showing the relationship among projects of the many planning agencies and executive agencies — public and private — which operate in this metropolitan area.
12
EDITORIAL COMMENT
Unfinished Business— From One Postwar Period to Another
Looking back to the last postwar period when we eagerly hoped for what we then called a reconstruction program to follow our hard-fought battles, we must admit that many of our rosy dreams seemed to fade into ashes. But if we make a closer examination to discover strands of thought and action in the long- range planning and conservation fields, we find that, after all, some progress has been achieved, even when interspersed with backward steps and discouraging obstacles.
Since the close of World War I, the United States has had five Presidents, thirteen sessions of Con- gress, and the Civic Association has exerted 26 years of effort to defend the ramparts of conservation and to ensure better living and working conditions through good technical planning services for city, State and Nation.
The end of the last war found the American Civic Association under the able leadership of Dr. J. Horace McFarland who had carried the torch for conservation and worked for nearly a decade for legislation which finally in 1916 created the National Park Service. Three years after the Armistice, Dr. McFarland persuaded Colonel Frederic A. Del- ano to become Chairman of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City and in 1925 to succeed him as President. It was through sugges- tions of the Committee of 100, work- ing with field committees and na- tional technical societies, that Sena- tor Capper and Representative Gib-
son finally secured the passage of the Act creating the National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission in 1926, thus giving to the Capital of the Nation its first per- manent official planning agency. DIVISION OF BUILDING AND HOUSING Just about the time the Civic Association organized its Committee of 100, Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce under the Harding and Coolidge administrations, set up a Division of Building and Housing under the directorship of Dr. John M. Gries. Of the many services per- formed by this Division, none was more far-reaching than the two slender pamphlets prepared with the assistance of eminent planners to present Model Planning and Zoning Enabling Acts. Hardly a city in the country today which has not profited by all or part of these proposed enabling acts and ordinances. It was due to the initiative of this Division, too, that President Hoover called together in 1931 that well-organized President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership which published eleven volumes on Planning and Housing, as the con- sensus of opinion of a wide repre- sentation from professional, indus- trial, commercial and civic groups. Taken into account with the Hoover Report on Recent Economic Changes which appeared in 1929 and the Report on Recent Social Trends which appeared early in 1933, we have the beginnings of much that happened later. Many of the proposals were to be realized.
13
Planning and Civic Comment
FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT STABILIZATION
In 1931 there was passed the Wagner Federal Employment Stab- ilization Act under which was in- itiated the practice of assembling six-year plans for public works pro- posed by local, state and national governments. Unfortunately, this Board was allowed to lapse in 1933. Its functions were revived in 1939 and again abandoned when the National Resources Planning Board was abolished. Thus, in the 14 years since the Act was adopted, this valuable long-range work has been conducted only six years in two widely separated periods.
NATIONAL PARKS
Back in 1920, Congress had passed an Act to create the Federal Power Commission, but, unfortu- nately, the Act would have permitted the exploitation of the National Parks for power. Because of the recommendation of John Barton Payne, then Secretary of the In- terior, President Wilson only con- sented to sign the bill on the promise of Senators Smoot and Underwood that at the short session in 1920-21 (we had short sessions then) the Act would be amended to exempt National Parks. This amendment was adopted by Congress, not with- out some opposition, but all existing National Parks were definitely ex- empted from the law, and all Na- tional Parks created since then have also carried such exemption in the Enabling Act. Thus, one of President Wilson's postwar acts was to protect the National Parks.
In the early years of peace all
sorts of proposals to put National Parks to commercial uses came be- fore Congress, including the various schemes to invade the Yellowstone National Park, but they all failed. Proposals to bring into the System areas better suited for other pur- poses were also defeated. These were all victories for conservation.
During the Roosevelt adminis- tration bitter fights developed over prospective Parks and Monuments. By 1937, Horace M. Albright, former Director of the National Park Service, had become President of the American Planning and Civic Association, which was a definite advantage to the cause of conserva- tion. There was the proposal for the Olympic National Park, which finally became a law through the passage of the Wallgren Bill in 1935; but, though the first proposals for such a park date back to 1905, it is doubtful whether we might now have this magnificent park if Presi- dent Roosevelt had not visited the area and given to the measure his hearty support. The Kings Canyon in California had been discussed for years by John Muir and -other leaders. With the active support of Secretary I ekes, the Gearhart bill to create the Kings Canyon National Park finally became a law in 1940.
Then we have the Jackson Hole National Monument. President Roosevelt's Executive Order setting up this Monument in 1943 was fol- lowed by the passage of a bill to abolish the Monument in the closing days of the 78th Congress. This President Roovevelt courageously vetoed, with a ringing statement of the reasons why. (See ANNUAL, 1944, p. 28.)
14
Planning and Civic Comment
SOIL CONSERVATION From small beginnings, American farmers have been made soil con- scious. Contour plowing, restoration of ground cover, reforestation prac- tices are spreading. The Soil Con- servation Service under Hugh H. Bennett has made great progress during the last decade. We shall in time reclaim some of the precious fertility which we have so carelessly wasted in the last hundred years.
TVA
Though Senator Norris had in- troduced many power bills into Con- gress it was not until May of 1933 that the Norris-Hill Bill became a law and TVA came into existence. Now, after 12 years the TVA is a going concern; it has contributed to a higher standard of living for many of the valley people (See book re- view p. 66); it has cooperated with agricultural agencies to improve and conserve the soil; it has cooperated with power distributing companies to furnish low-cost electricity to farmers and towns ; it has cooperated with States and local governments to bring benefits of modern planning into the area.
HOUSING
It was during the Roosevelt ad- ministration that the Wagner Hous- ing Act started the country on the program for public housing and the FHA organized its service to pro- mote better planning and financial practices for private homes. Not until the war, however, did Presi- dent Roosevelt by Executive Order consolidate all the Federal housing agencies. It is to be hoped that Congress will continue this con- solidation.
In December of 1931 the Watson- Luce Bill to create Federal Home Loan Discount Banks was intro- duced into Congress but it was not until July 11, 1932 that a substitute Act was passed to create the Fed- eral Home Loan Banks.
ccc
The CCC, proposed by President Roosevelt, and created by Congress, grew out of the Depression and, under Robert Fechner, made a fine contribution to the welfare of the enrollees and provided improve- ments for national and state parks and forests and other reservations. The CCC is no more. A recent re- port covering 10 years has been made to Secretary I ekes by Conrad L. Wirth, Departmental Represen- tative on the Advisory Council. The National Conference on State Parks has made definite recommendations for improvements in set-up if the work is revived.
POSTWAR OUTLOOK
President Truman enters office, therefore, with a truly great heritage of solid accomplishment in plan- ning and conservation, but with some unfinished business which de- serves attention.
In the field of National Planning, we have been for two years without any over-all national planning agency. We are entering a period when there will be vast sums of money spent for public and private projects. We have no assurance that these will conform even to local comprehensive plans and there is no way under heaven for anyone to ascertain whether they will conform
15
Planning and Civic Comment
to any national pattern! Let the scope of a national planning board be carefully defined by Congress, but let it be an over-all staff type of service rather than a regular line department. It is the only known remedy for Departmentitis. The McCarran - King Bill to create a Natural Resources Board could be amended to provide for an adequate planning board.
In the field of Conservation we may hope and expect that the Jackson Hole National Monument will stand, also the National Antiquities Act of 1906. (See p. 23) One adjustment which has been pending through many administrations should be made promptly. Senator Carl Hay- den has reintroduced his bill S. 67 to authorize the payment to the States or subdivisions of a percentage of the receipts from areas under the Na- tional Park Service on a plan similar to that in effect in the national forests and other Federal reserva- tions. This is a simple act of justice to States and counties and to the national parks and monuments themselves which are placed at a disadvantage in comparison with other Federal holdings.
For the Federal City, which is a national responsibility, we can check off one proposal which has given us trouble for over twenty years. In the late twenties the project was headed off by the Capper-Cramton Resolution in Congress and later followed by the Capper-Cramton Act authorizing the acquisition of the Potomac Valley near Washing- ton for park purposes. On the re-
vised proposals of the forties, the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors has announced that it will make an adverse decision on the 14 power dams.
As unfinished business, there will soon emerge from the Bureau of the Budget proposed legislation to put into effect the recommendations made in response to the request of President Roosevelt to reorganize the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, now under the Chairmanship of Major General U. S. Grant, 3rd. There are pending bills for urban redevelopment and for tinkering with the public housing machinery in the District of Co- lumbia. We would like to see a bill in which the urban redevelop- ment machinery is kept entirely separate from public housing ad- ministration.
A new problem has been raised in the Federal City, and inferentially in the Nation, by the Public Roads Act of 1944, under which inter- regional roads and bridges in urban territory may receive Federal Aid. It is highly important that such Federal-Aid roads in location and design shall conform to well-con- sidered plans of local planning com- missions, and shall promote good local planning.
Thus, we must realize that to se- cure progress in these and other fields we need a meeting of minds of the legislative, the executive and citizen public opinion. Any one of these three can arrest action. To- gether they are invincible.
16
The Central Valley of California
Water Control Structures and their Relationship to Recreational Planning
By EVERETT A. PESONEN, Sacramento, Calif.
As soon as a site for a dam is se- lected it becomes a sight-seeing ob- jective. For years before work was started, Californians visited the sites of Shasta and Friant dams. Huge crowds came to the ground- breaking ceremonies when the Bureau of Reclamation started con- struction, and from that time until Pearl Harbor, more than a million visitors from all over the United States and from many foreign coun- tries came to see the work in prog- ress. In spite of gasoline rationing about 30,000 people visited Shasta dam in 1944.
Visualizing the reservoirs which will be formed, the visitors ask many questions about opportunities for boating, angling and bathing and about resort and cabin sites. Boulder Dam and the TVA have proved that this interest is not transitory and that recreational use becomes a reality after the dams are complete and the reservoirs formed. As a result, recreation is accepted as one of the benefits which multiple- purpose water conservation struc- tures may provide, and planning for recreational use is included in studies for such projects.
The fluctuating water level, which characterizes reservoirs used for flood control and for storage of water for irrigation and power, is the greatest limiting factor and the most important one to consider in planning. Density of population in the surrounding country, accessi-
bility, need for more recreational areas, and the adaptability of the shorelands for development are, of course, considerations which must be taken into account in any evaluation of recreational use potentialities. Scenic and scientific interest, if present, are naturally assets adding to the suitability of an area.
Postwar plans call for 38 more dams on the streams of the Central Valley for ultimate control of its water resources. A brief considera- tion of the valley's physiographic characteristics and of the history of its water control planning, will help to indicate the significance of the reservoirs these dams will create. Lying between the Sierra Nevada on the ea t and the Coast Ranges on the west, in the central and north central part of the State, the great Central Valley is drained by the Sacramento River from the north and the San Joaquin from the south, both having a common outlet in San Francisco Bay. An intensive irrigated agiiculture has developed through use of the waters of tribu- tary streams. Nearly 3,500,000 acres are irrigated and about an equal acreage could be irrigated if water were made available. Most of the unirrigated land lies in the San Joaquin Valley, but the principal surplus water supply flows down the Sacramento River. Practically all precipitation occurs during the win- ter months. This unbalanced sea- sonal rainfall and supply of water
17
Planning and Civic Comment
in relation to irrigable land has led the State to adopt complex plans for storage and for transport of Sacra- mento River waters to the Valley of the San Joaquin. Action on state plans was started in 1933, but due to financing problems, Federal assist- ance was requested. In 1935, Fed- eral funds were made available, and Shasta and Friant dams, the initial features of the state water plan, along with necessary canals, were authorized for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation. The dams are now in operation and the reser- voirs behind them are already im- portant landmarks on the California ;andscape. What are their recrea- tional possibilities and the poten- tialities of the 38 additional reser- voirs proposed?
In the Central Valley, within easy reach of the dams, live more than a million people. This population can normally reach mountain or sea coast resorts in two or three hours driving time. Four National Parks, eight national monuments, a fine state park system, and more than 19,000,000 acres of well distributed national forest land, besides a mul- titude of resorts and dude ranches, many open the year round, help to serve them. These areas and facili- ties offer mostly "extensive" rec- reation, i.e., sightseeing, angling, hunting, camping, hiking, pack trips, etc. The mountain places are pat- ronized mostly by vacationists in the summer, and by skiing enthu- siasts in winter while the sea coast resorts serve those more interested in rest and relaxation. Many people cannot spare the time or cannot afford to enjoy them. In addition, areas are needed for those who have
little money to spend and for those who have only a day or part of a day for enjoyment of aquatic sports, picnicking, and outdoor activities generally. Places are also needed where people can go when the moun- tain resorts are closed. Most of the reservoirs proposed for the Central Valley are located nearby in the foothills within 25 to 50 miles of population centers and can be reached the year round. They would increase the inland water area of the State by more than 300,000 acres. With this huge water area and their proximity to population, these reser- voirs can provide opportunity for the constructive use of leisure time when other places are closed and when time is limited.
Besides the main dams there will be many smaller reservoirs at di- version points for irrigation and to provide re-regulation to equalize diurnal changes in releases of water. These smaller reservoirs often have more stable water levels and, with minor concessions to recreation, they can be safer bodies of water. Being farther downstream, their shore- lands are not usually so steep and they are even nearer to centers of population. Also being at lower elevations, they are likely to have a more moderate climate, and, there- fore, a longer recreational season. They may thus offer the best oppor- tunities for use and development.
Water conservation structures have far-reaching influences in ad- dition to the creation of reservoirs. Highways, railroads, power lines, and other utilities must be relocated. Communities and trading centers which will be flooded out or stranded by the relocation of the arteries of
18
Planning and Civic Comment
travel, must be rebuilt or replaced. Highways may be so routed that higherto inaccessible areas will be served, and scenic overlooks and roadside parks can be set aside be- fore the sites are preempted for other uses. In some cases, advantage may be taken of the need for relo- cating a road to create a parkway or scenic highway. As an example, the fourteen - mile, four - hundred - foot right-of-way of relocated U. S. Highway 99 through the Shasta reservoir area wil be a major factor in achieving an orderly development of accommodations for travelers and recreationists, and billboards and unsightly marginal enterprises will be eliminated.
Protection of the watersheds from forest fires and erosion will influence wildlife habitat and may improve game cover. Where hunting on the shorelands of reservoirs proves prac- ticable, the creation of public shoot- ing grounds deserves consideration. These will need water which new and existing reservoirs can supply.
Reservoirs may indirectly benefit parks and wilderness areas through relieving congestion in state and national parks and forest camp grounds.
From a scenic viewpoint, it must be accepted that reservoirs may have negative effects. Attractive streams are often inundated and a reservoir is "foreign" to the native landscape. In a water shortage area such as the San Joaquin Valley, greater scenic sacrifices may be necessary than might ordinarily be tolerated. The fluctuating water levels, which are a necessary corol- lary to the operation of the reser- voirs for their major purposes, will
limit attractive shorelines to the season during which the maximum storage level is maintained. For- tunately, in many cases, the highest water levels will prevail in the spring and early summer months, so a full lake may be enjoyed during the early part of the recreational season.
A serious complication in impos- ing additional stream controls is the need for preserving the runs of migratory fish such as the salmon, shad and striped bass. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has esti- mated the value of the salmon sport fishery in the Central Valley at $950,000 per year, and the com- mercial salmon catch at half that sum. Any new fresh water fishery which might be established in re- placement could not balance the loss which would be caused by im- passable barriers in the streams.
In artificial lakes the production of foods for resident fish is inhibited by fluctuating water levels and propagation is adversely affected, especially if falling water levels leave the nests dry during the spawn- ing season. This means that mul- tiple-purpose reservoirs cannot be as favorable for angling as natural waters, and that artificial stocking is of questionable value since food production is the principal limiting factor. Angling experience indicates that reservoirs are usually good for the first few years, after which they progressively decline to some point where the fish population is in bal- ance with the limited food supply.
The improvement of streams wi I be the most far reaching recreational gain, from the long-time water- control plans now being considered. With sustained flows where they
19
Planning and Civic Comment
are now intermittent and more ade- quate flows where they are now in- sufficient, there is promise of con- siderable stream rehabilitation. Not only should these streams be more attractive and better for boating but some increases in salmon-producing water, to help offset losses on streams that are cut short by dams, may be anticipated.
River frontage on California streams generally has not been developed for home and scenic values. Pollution, debris from hy- draulic mining, ' depletion of water due to irrigation and interference by the levees necessary for flood control have been the cause. With debris control in effect, flood hazard re- duced and more uniform flows established, much more use of the stream banks for parks, parkways and home developments should take place although pollution must be greatly reduced before the water is really desirable from a recreational standpoint and only centuries of time can erase the scars of stream- bank destruction by gold mining.
Operation of Shasta and Friant
dams began in 1944 and the plans for future control projects on some of the tributary streams are reach- ing the blue print stage. As the number of streams under control in- creases, the integrated operation of the dams becomes more complicated. Both over-all plans and the de- tailed plans of each control structure projected for future construction will require consideration in the light of continuing experience, if needless damage is to be prevented and all possible gains are to be realized for recreation and for fish and wildlife as well as for agriculture and the whole economic life of the valley. The agencies having responsibility for planning are cognizant of the fact that the justification for stream- control projects must take into ac- count not only engineering and economic feasibility, but also the biological consequences on aquatic life and the social effects on the communities affected. Aided by enlightened public interest, sound planning can be expected from agencies responsible for developing the Nation's water resources.
Dallas Conference in 1946
Mayor J. Woodall Rodgers of Dallas has expressed a preference for a spring date for the next Citizens Conference on Planning and the date is set tentatively for April of 1946 — a beautiful month in Texas. Mark your calendar and plan to attend the Conference. By that time the war in the Pacific should be over. By that time we shall have forgotten the popular words "Post-
war Period" which we used so freely during the war years. By that time, to quote from a popular radio com- mentator, tomorrow will have be- come yesterday in history. And by that time planning associations and planning commissions will be ready to exchange views on all the new methods of planning and replanning. This Conference will be important. You cannot afford to miss it!
20
Above. Shasta Dam, with 14,000 ft. Mount Shasta in the background. Shasta dam is the highest overflow type concrete dam in the world. It contains more concrete than Boulder dam and it is higher than Grand Coulee. The spillway drop is 480 ft. — three times as high as Niagara Falls. Shasta reservoir is 30,000 acres in area and has 365 miles of shoreline.
Below. Shasta Lake Basin before it started to fill up. Old U. S. Highway 99 and one of the first concrete arch bridges in California are now gone from view forever. The picture was taken from the new double deck bridge which spans the reservoir carrying a four lane highway on the upper deck and a double track railway on the lower deck.
,
I
Nestor Barr
View of part of the "Neighborhoods of Tomorrow" exhibition presented by the Citizens Planning Counci of San Jose, Calif. Map in right foreground shows three park sites recently purchased by the City of San Jose They will be developed after the war at a total cost of approximately $200,000. The William Street Pan site is 26 acres, the Willow Glen Park site is 15 acres, and the park for the College Park area will be 9 acres
Housing section of the "Neighborhoods of Tomorrow" exhibition recently presented by the Citizens Plan< ning Council of San Jose, Calif. At left, photographs of good homes, with a panel on housing from the "Knot. Your Neighborhood" circulating exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. At right, ma\ of San Jose showing blocks in which 40 per cent or more of dwelling units are substandard, together wit? photographs of slum housing that exists within half a mile of the San Jose City Hall and downtown busines district.
Photo by Nestor B,
The Antiquities Act Must Be Saved
-
The Antiquities Act of 1906 — the law which has made possible the establishment of 82 national monu- ments and the special protection of historic, prehistoric and scientific resources of incalculable value — is under Congressional fire. This fact is a direct result of the long and bitter battle over Jackson Hole; and those who are now attempting to destroy the Act or to repeal its vital Section Two are men who were also active in the thus far unsuccess- ful attempt to abolish the Jackson Hole National Monument.
Opposition to Jackson Hole is based largely on the contention that the area was given national-monu- ment status without the consent of Wyoming and against the opposition of those who live in or near the monument. It seems fair to assume that this is the basis of opposition to the Act under which the monument was established and that those who would repeal or cripple it believe that such actions should be subject to local consent.
No lands can become a part of a national monument unless they are owned by the people of the United States; such lands are owned by all the people, and their use should be determined on the basis of the in- terest and welfare of all the people. The Antiquities Act provides a prompt, effective and time-proven method of taking such action.
THE ACT is STILL NEEDED
The original occasion for the Act and one which is as valid today as when it was passed thirty-nine years
ago — was the vandalistic despolia- tion of articles of scientific or archeological or historic interest in the public lands of the United States. Before it was passed, loot- ing public lands of irreplaceable and significant artifacts and other ob- jects, especially those relating to the pre-history of our country, was a commonplace occurrence. In the Southwest, these were gathered by the carload and sold as curios; and the places from which they were taken were so changed as to leave them valueless for the research of the scientist and the archeologist; it was as though vandals had torn pages — irrecoverable and priceless — out of the only volume of our country's pre-history. Much land, chiefly valuable for notable scientific ex- hibits— geological and botanical — had been permitted to pass into private hands.
Section One of the Act made it illegal for anyone, without specific authority to do so, to excavate, in- jure or destroy "any historic or pre- historic ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity situated on lands owned or controlled by the Govern- ment of the United States." Section Three provided that excavation could be authorized only to recog- nized educational or scientific in- stitutions; and objects gathered were required to be preserved perma- nently in public museums. That outlawed the "pot hunter," though he has never completely gone out of business. It is difficult to perceive how anyone could find justification for removal of this protection; un-
23
Planning and Civic Comment
believable that Congress, knowing the nature of the Act, would give serious consideration to its repeal.
THE PRINCIPAL TARGET — SECTION II
Section Two goes beyond the bare prohibitory provision of Sec- tion One by providing that, "in his discretion,'* the President of the United States may establish na- tional monuments to include "his- toric landmarks, historic and pre- historic structures, and other ob- jects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States." Though it pro- vides that the limits of such areas "in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the properties to be protected," the Supreme Court decided more than a quarter of a century ago that a monument does not have to be small, when it declared that the Act conveyed ample authority for the establishment of the first Grand Canyon National Monument of more than 800,000 acres. The in- tention here is to provide a prompt and effective way of giving special protection to sites of special signifi- cance irrespective of size.
Five bills thus far introduced in the present 79th Congress relate to this Act. H. R. 1112, introduced by the late Representative James F. O'Connor of Montana, would repeal it entirely; H. R. 1507, intro- duced by Representative J. Edgar Chenoweth of Colorado; and H. R. 2110, introduced by Representa- tive Frank A. Barrett of Wyoming,
would repeal Section Two of the Act. Representative A. M. Fer- nandez of New Mexico has intro- duced H. R. 409, which would amend Section Two by limiting the size of any national monument established by Presidential action to 10,000 acres. Senator Edward V. Robertson of Wyoming introduced S. 664, a bill which would make the establishment of every future na- tional monument subject to an elaborate procedure for obtaining the approval of the Governor, the United States Senators, the Repre- sentatives at large, and the Repre- sentatives in whose district any part of the proposed monument was situated. In other words, matters of national importance would be sub- ject to decision on a state basis. The bill is also aimed at the abolish- ment of the Jackson Hole National Monument, since its provisions would be made effective as of De- cember 1, 1941, and this monument is the only one established since that date. In view of the fact that there have been 82 national monuments established by Presidential procla- mation, and Senator Robertson would abolish only one, his bill ap- pears to be a strong tribute to the effectiveness and usefulness of Sec- tion Two.
The Congressional Committees which will consider these bills are the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, and the House Com- mittee on Public Lands. Chairman Carl Hatch, Senator from New Mexico, and J. Hardin Peterson, Representative from Florida, would be glad to receive expressions of opinion concerning these bills.
24
Planning and Civic Comment
DEFENSE NEEDED, AND JUSTIFIED
The only valid reasons for re- pealing or modifying a law would appear to be either that it is no longer needed, or that it has worked badly. We know that there is still need of a method by which prompt and decisive action may be taken to protect for the benefit of the people of the United States menaced and destructible scientific and historic objects. Now let us see what are the accomplishments of the Antiquities Act, so that we may judge fairly whether it has worked well or badly.
If a law, like a person, is to be judged by its works, the contribu- tion of Section Two of the Antiqui- ties Act to the preservation of price- less historic, prehistoric and scien- tific objects and areas is such that its defense deserves the support of conservationists. Consider:
After Arizona became a State, opposition to the action of President Theodore Roosevelt continued, but the national monument status pro- tected the Grand Canyon against exploitation for ten years before Congress got around to making a national park of it in 1919; it did the same for Zion Canyon. The Mount Olympus National Monu- ment, originally more than 600,000 acres in extent, but reduced by President Wilson to approximately 300,000 acres, protected the heart of the Olympics for 29 years before Congress made a national park there, authorizing an ultimate park area nearly 200,000 acres greater than the original monument. In all of these instances, as well as at Devils Tower, the first national monument, Craters of the Moon,
Katmai, Muir Woods and many others, it was their extraordinary scientific features which gave them distinction and justified their monu- ment status.
THAT 10,000-AcRE LIMIT
The Act has given us 82 national monuments, containing resources of incalculable value. Many of them are, of course, considerably smaller than the 10,000 acres proposed by H. R. 409, as the size limit for monu- ments which the President could establish; yet, in numerous other cases, the nature of the objects to be protected and preserved amply justified setting aside more than 10,000 acres. It is reasonable to suppose that similar cases may arise in the future.
No mistake was made when Ban- delier, with its priceless relics of antiquity, was made a monument; or Chaco Canyon; or Canyon de Chelly; or Glacier Bay; or White Sands; or Death Valley; or Katmai; or any one of eighteen others, each of which contains more than 10,000 acres. They stand as witnesses to the value of the Antiquities Act, as it is and as it has been since 1906.
The record is clear. The Antiqui- ties Act, and specifically Section Two, has justified abundantly the conservation hopes of those who conceived it and of Major John R. Lacey, the farsighted Iowa Con- gressman who introduced it and fought for its passage in 1906. It should remain upon the statute books, so that it may continue as a quick and effective instrument for protecting the historic and scientific resources on Federal lands for the people of the United States.
25
No Power on the Potomac
One of the most dramatic hear- ings held in Washington in many years was the public hearing on April 3, 1945, on the Recommenda- tions for 14 dams to develop power on the Potomac. The seven mem- bers of the Corps of Engineers who constitute the Board of Engineers on Rivers and Harbors, presided over by Brigadier General John J. Kingman, sat on the high platform of the Auditorium of the Depart- ment of the Interior. All of the 800 seats were filled and several hundred men and women stood throughout the morning in the bays between the supporting pillars. These came from the farms and communities which would have been flooded out if the dams had been built. Senator Harry Flood Byrd and Representatives A. Willis Rob- ertson and Howard W. Smith, of Virginia led off by describing the economic and sentimental value of the farms and communities — far in excess of any possible economic gain in power and at a fearful sacrifice of human values. Petition after peti- tion was filed, while hundreds who had signed them arose to show that they were present. Senators Rever- comb and Kilgore and Representa- tive Jennings Randolph from West Virginia and Senator Radcliffe and Representative Beale of Maryland
presented their constituents and all insisted that if an adverse report was not made promptly public hearings be held in each of the valleys affected. Of all the nearly 1200 persons who attended the hearings only four spoke in favor of the proposal.
Many national organizations sup- ported the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Com- mission of Fine Arts, and the Na- tional Capital Parks in their opposi- tion to the power developments, including the Izaak Walton League of America, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Society of Civil Engineers,The Am- erican Institute of Architects, The Garden Club of America, the Na- tional Parks Association and the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation.
The day following the hearings, General Kingman wrote to Senator Byrd to inform him that the Board had voted to make an adverse report and that local hearings, therefore, would not be necessary. This does not mean to say that proposals for flood control may not be made; but it does mean that the proposals for power on the Potomac are definitely killed and it will not be easy to re- vive them. This is a victory for conservation and sound land and water planning, also for democracy.
Agencies contributing photographs for the PARKS section. BUREAU OF PARKS, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK; The Indianapolis Star, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA; OFFICE OF PARK SUPERINTENDENT, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA; COMMISSION OF PUBLIC WORKS, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT; CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF PARKS, NEW YORK CITY; DEPART- MENT OF PARKS AND PUBLIC PROPERTY, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH; DEPART- MENT OF PARKS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON; BUREAU OF PARKS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA; DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND PUBLIC PROPERTY, HARRIS- BURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
26
— — — ^^^
I
This is the third of a series of municipal park photographs; others were published in the October 1943 and the April 1944 issues.
The Rochester, New York, park system includes six major parks totaling more than 1,900 acres. Most widely known is Highland Park, famous for its plant collections. The Conifer Group has shown healthy growth since 1910.
One of the show places in Indianapolis is Garfield Park's sunken gardens and conservatory. Approximately 20,000 persons attended three performances of "Pirates of Penzance," which was presented without charge in the parks open air theater last summer by the Indianapolis Opera Theater in cooperation with the Board of Park Commissioners.
New Haven's East Rock Park preserves a rugged New England landscape and serves as a setting for Soldiers and Sailors Monument. The broad bathing beach at Lighthouse Point Park is used by thousands.
Pasadena is noted both for its roses and its Rose Bowl — roses grow luxuriantly along the Rose Bowl fence. Children at Besse Play- ground show attentive interest in crafts.
,
New York City1 s parks provide recreation facilities for those of all ages. A sand diggery is always popular with small children.
Manhattan s East River Drive is an outstanding achievement in arterial highway and waterfront park development.
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Under the shadow of Manhattan's skyscrapers, special paths separated fror,
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traffic routes provide opportunities for cycling in famed Central Park.
Since 1933, New York City's park system has been reorgan- ized, renovated, and expanded under the aggressive leadership of Park ^Commissioner Robert Moses. Park developments in jour of the five boroughs are il- lustrated in these pages.
The cover of this Section shows the George Washington Bridge from the tower of the Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan.
Belt Parkway runs through Alley Pond Park in Queens. The swimming pool in Colonial Park, Manhattan, serves one of the colored neighborhoods in Harlem. Boating is a favorite activity in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. One of the races in the Brooklyn-wide finals of an ice skating carnival is about to start.
mm
Salt Lake City's younger generation en- thusiastically fish for trout in Fairmount Park.
The bathing beach in Seattle's Seward Park, with coniferous forest background typical of the Northwest, is shown below.
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WSV&i
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IV
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m
Grandview Park in Mount Washington provides an excellent view of the business section of Pittsburgh, known as the Golden Triangle, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers
I
f '
Pittsburgh's 19 parks, totaling approximately 2,000 acres, provide many scenic and recreational features. The bowling green in Frick Park is especially popular under the sponsorship, of the Frick Lawn Bowling Association. Wissahickon Nature Museum, the famous Allegheny Observatory, and many miles of nature trail are located in Riverview Park.
.*,-*••
Harrhburg has taken excellent advantage of its frontage along the Susquehanna River which affsrds magnificent views to the pedestrian and motorist. The tilting contest is the final event of Kipona {spark- ling waters), an annual Labor Day aquatic sports carnival.
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A few of the 10,000 rose plants in Harrisburg's Municipal Rose Garden are shown above. Those on the arches are Dr. Hueys.
State Park
More than fifteen years ago, dur- ing the administration of Governor Fisher, when the Bureau of Parks was established, Pennsylvania had few if any areas which, under ac- knowledged standards, could be classified as recreational parks.
Most of the so-called parks at that time were simply scenic areas carved from our forests, and as the forests were mostly in the mountain chains, extending from southwest to northeast, no provision was made for our large metropolitan popula- tions who most greatly need such facilities. From Philadelphia, in either direction, to the Delaware Forest on the north, or to the Michaux Forest on the west, the distance was more than one hundred and twenty-five miles; and from Pittsburgh to the Cook Forest, more than ninety miles.
Apart from the money provided to supplement public subscription for the purchase of this latter site, there was no appropriation for such exclusive purpose, until, in 1941, $150,000 was provided for the ac- quisition of Ricketts Glen.
Through these long years of neglect, sites which might have been most desirable for forest parks have slipped from our hands.
Now, however, we are fortunate
in having an administration which is thoroughly alive to the State's needs. Secretary Kell of the De- partment of Forests and Waters, not only approves of the extension of our park system, but is enthusiastic about the scheme of providing greater recreational facilities.
Under his guidance, with the active support of Governor Martin and valuable assistance from At- torney-General Duff, and with the constant cooperation of the Penn- sylvania Parks Association, a plan has been prepared which is far- reaching in its scope.
Thirty-mile c rcles have been drawn • around the ten large met- ropolitan centers, in which will be selected suitable sites for recreation for their citizens, embracing at least eighty-five per cent of the popula- tion of the Commonwealth. A liberal appropriation has been made by the present legislature, which will undoubtedly be followed by Jmilar action on the part of succeeding bodies through the coming years, thus permitting the gradual, but con- tinuous acquiring of the lands needed for our purpose. The start will probably be made in those lo- calities in which the need is greatest.
Thus it is hoped we can make up for lost time, and that in the coming
43
Planning and Civic Comment
years a magnificent chain of forest parks will be established of which Pennsylvania can justly be proud, and which will bring our State abreast with the others which have provided so generously for the health and welfare of their citizens.
This can well be a monument to the present administration, under whose auspices the plan was pre- pared and given the needed impetus. Markley Stevenson of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Parks Association has prepared a study of Pennsylvania's park needs which looks far into the future.. It is reproduced on the back cover page of this issue.
Florida: C. H. Coulter, Assistant State Forester for the past 10 years, has succeeded H. J. Mals- berger as State Forester and Park Executive. Mr. Malsberger resigned to become Manager of the Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association.
Indiana: Milton Matter, former Secretary of the State Conservation Commission, has succeeded Hugh Barnhart as Director. Charles A. DeTurk has resigned as Director of State Parks. Maj. Robert Wirsch- ing, formerly with the National Park Service succeeds Mr. DeTurk.
Attendance at Indiana State Parks jumped almost 200 percent during the first four months of 1945, reports Mr. Matter. Reser- vations at most parks, are taken several weeks ahead. Improvements in many park areas have been made in anticipation of the greatest s,ea- sonal attendance since 1941, last prewar year.
Creation of a division of Water Resources and Topographical Map- ping within the Indiana Department
of Conservation has been announced .
The new d. vision, formed to meet increased water resources needs of the State, was the result of a recom- mendation by members of the Con- servation Department — James W. Carr of Indianapol s, Ivar Hennings of South Bend, Benton Jay Bloom of Columbia City and Cornelius O'Brien of Lawrenceburg.
Charles H. Bechert, former chief engineer for the department, has been appointed as division head and he assumes his new post imme- diately.
The division's establishment fol- lows expansion of the department's work in relation to flood control, topographical mapping of the State, maintenance of water levels, the ground and surface water resources survey and drainage.
A preliminary report by the plan- ning committee of the Indiana De- partment of Conservation has re- cently been issued to show the plan- ning progress made to date and also to indicate some of the problems confronting the Department in the future.
Kentucky: Russell Dyche, Di- rector, Division of State Parks, has announced that 87-acre Blue and Gray State Park near Elkton, which has been closed since last July, will be sold at auction. He believes that the park has little scenic value and no recreation facilities of conse- quence.
Maine: In January, the State accepted from former Governor Percival P. Baxter an additional 35,554 acres as an enlargement to Baxter State Park, which now totals 116,228 acres. Mr. Baxter hopes eventually to donate sufficient ad-
44
Planning and Civic Comment
ditional lands to bring the total to 150,000 acres.
Missouri: Provisions of the new State Constitution will make avail- able for appropriation approximately $400,000 annually for the main- tenance and development of state parks.
Under the terms of the new Con- stitution, approved by popular ref- erendum on February 27, 1945, Section 47 states: "For fifteen years from the day this Constitution takes effect the general assembly shall appropriate for each year out of the general revenue fund, an amount not less than that produced annually at a tax rate of one cent on each one hundred dollars assessed valuation of the real and tangible personal property taxable by the State for the exclusive purpose of providing a state park fund to be expended and used by the agency authorized by law to control and supervise state parks, for the purposes of acquisi- tion, supervision, operation, main- tenance, development, control, regu- lation and restoration of state parks and state park property as may be determined by such agency; and thereafter the general assembly shall appropriate such amounts as may be reasonably necessary for such purposes.
Section 48: The general assembly may enact laws and make appro- priations to preserve and perpetuate memorial of the history of the State by parks, buildings, monuments, statues, paintings, documents of historical value or by other means, and to preserve places of historic or archaeological interest or scenic beauty, and for such purposes pri- vate property or the use thereof may
be acquired by gift, purchase, or eminent domain or be subjected to reasonable regulation or control.
New Jersey: Pursuant to legis- lation enacted this past winter, the newly created Department of Con- servation, on July 1, will absorb the functions of a number of inde- pendent agencies. The fine major ones included in this consolidation will become Divisions of the new Department. The present Depart- ment of Conservation and Develop- ment will become the Division of Forestry, Geology, Parks and His- toric Sites. It will absorb all of the activities of the present department relating to state parks and forests, as well as the functions of the High Point Park Commission, the Edison Park Commission, The Commission on Historic Sites, Grover Cleveland Birthplace Association, and Veter- ans of All Wars Memorial Asso- ciation. This Division will continue to be headed by State Forester and Director C. P. Wilber, and the De- partment by Commissioner Morgan F. Larson.
New York: Horace M. Albright, former Director of the National Park Service, and President of the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation, has been appointed by Governor Dewey to membership on the Palisades Interstate Park Com- mission, filling the vacancy left by the death of Alfred E. Smith.
A. B. Cole has resigned as Execu- tive Secretary for the Niagara Frontier State Park Commission. Francis C. Seyfried is acting Execu- tive Secretary. Perry B. Duryea is the new Conservation Commis- sioner of N. Y.
North Carolina: The State Legis-
43
Planning and Civic Comment
lature of North Carolina established in March a permanent Recreation Commission with a direct appro- priation, also a new Recreation Enabling act. The Recreation Com- mission is to be composed of seven lay members and four ex officio members, and an advisory com- mittee of thirty members. A sum of $7,500 is appropriated for each year of the biennlum.
W. K. Beichler, for the past three years Assistant Forester in charge of fire control, has been named State Forester of North Carolina to succeed J. S. Holmes, who was the first and only State Forester to serve the State up to Mr. Beichler's appointment. Mr. Holmes will remain with the State De- partment of Conservation and Devel- opment as Associate State Forester. Mr. Beichler is a native of Penn- sylvania and a graduate of the Penn State School of Forestry.
The North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development has accepted the gift and bequest of the late Mrs. J. E. Latham of Greensboro, N. C., for the restora- tion of Tryon's Palace, the residence of the Royal Governor William Tryon, built in 1767. Mrs. Latham gave $100,000 towards the project and left an additional quarter of a million in her will towards the work of rebuilding. Only a wing of the original building now remains, but the original plans which have been discovered in the New York His- torical Society, after being "lost" for 90 years will be followed in the reconstruction. The original build- ing had a most interesting history; its elegance and beauty in colonial days was an issue in patriotic up-
risings and considered a factor in the economic distress of the colony. Kenneth Chorley, President of Colo- nial Williamsburg, in a speech be- fore the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, stated that the restoration of Tryon's Palace is a fundamental and mag- nificent proposal. "The building," said Mr. Chorley, "would represent the unique combination of Palace and Capitol Building, formally the first of each that North Carolina had, and it would accomplish in one project what certain other eastern States might only accomplish in two."
Pennsylvania: Michael Baker, En- gineers of Rochester, Pennsylvania, have been engaged to make a study and inventory of the State's rec- reational facilities.
Tennessee: The Division of State Parks is sponsoring a state-wide Camp Leaders' Training Camp and Institute at Fall Creek Falls State Park from June 4 to 17. This proj- ect, which is being undertaken with tjie full cooperation of the many camping agencies in the State, is designed to train their camp leaders in program activities and other phases of camp administration. At- tendance by about 85 persons is expected.
Washington: The 1945 Legisla- ture appropriated $150,000 from the Motor Vehicle Fund for con- struction of highways in state parks.
Perry T. Martin has succeeded E. A. Carroll as Director, State Parks Committee.
West Virginia: Hibert Dahl has succeeded R. Bruce Griffith as Chief, Division of State Parks.
46
••P
Upper. Scene in the glacier-carved valley of Jackson Hole. Lower. A family of rare trumpeter swans which breed in secluded lakes in the northern part of the Monument.
Jackson Hole is the wintering ground for a part of the Southern Yellow- stone elk herd. Drifting southward through the hills of the Hole, thousands of elk are fed each winter on the refuge managed by the Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice, just south of Jackson Hole National Monument.
Heard About Jackson Hole?
By KATHARINE BOYD
EDITOR'S NOTE: By permission of the author and the Atlantic Monthly this excellent story which appeared in the March issue is reproduced for the benefit of our readers.
They called him "the Virginian," for no particular reason that I could see unless it was to annoy him — because he hated with such bitter hatred the show-off cowboys and fake bronc riders with sideburns and Navajo rings who hung around so many small Western towns talking big to the dudes. "The Hi-O Silver boys," he called them. Perhaps that is why they called him after the most romantic cowboy of them all : the way in the West, they call a slim man "Fats ' and a great giant of a man "Peewee."
The Virginian was like his name- sake in that he was tall and lanky and had a devastating sense of humor, but there the resemblance ceased. Certainly there was noth- ing romantic about him now as he leaned back in his chair propped against a corner of the bar, sampling his drink, "studying in his mind," as he called it, what we had been dis- cussing. His battered black hat was curled up at the sides, tilted forward over his red-brown face; his wind- breaker was black, too, of leather, rubbed and scuffed at the elbows and wrists and collar; the Levis on his long, thin legs were soft and pale from long wear. He balanced his drink in a dark, horny hand, the long fingers curling around the glass.
"Well," he said, "you may say the Old West is gone, if you want to. And PIl allow you that some of it's gone. Stagecoaches is gone, and Indians on the warpath. The U. S.
Cavalry is gone, praise to God. And we ain't had a lynchin' for as long as I can recall. But most of the rest is still here: cattle and cowhands and horses; coyote and elk and ante- lope, sheep for them that likes them."
"But rustlers and horse thieves and all that," I protested. "That's all gone, and shooting —
"No, we ain't had a real shooting for a good while. But rustling, now, that's a different matter."
I gazed at him astonished. "You mean there are cattle rustlers? Here in Jackson Hole?"
"Well, maybe not exactly rust- lers," he said. He rolled his glass and looked down at the swirling amber. "But pretty close to it. Only we don't call them rustlers any more."
"What do you call them?"
"Millionaires." His blue eyes stared at me.
For years now the Virginian had guided us on pack trips up Pacific and Pilgrim Creeks and along the Buffalo Forks. And back up into the Tetons. Magnificent country. It is all included in the tract which was last year proclaimed a national monument — the Jackson Hole Na- tional Monument. There are 22 1,000 acres of land in all, of which 77 per- cent is already government-owned, 15 percent is owned by John D. Rockefeller, and 8 percent by small ranchers. I had heard a great deal about the Monument since coming
49
Planning and Civic Comment
to Wyoming. You couldn't join up with a crowd at any cafe in Jackson without hearing about it. Mostly you heard only one side, and the people that did the talking were the big folks and the lady and gentle- men ranchers.
Up the valley they didn't talk so much, and if you brought it up they answered evasively. "There's lots to be said for both sides," they'd say. One man who took out fishing parties was franker. "What do I think?" he said. "I don't think." He looked at me hard. "My living conies from taking folks fishing. I can't afford to think."
But in and around town there was plenty of talk. They had had it back and forth all year, and after the President's pocket veto of the Barrett bill abolishing the Monu- ment, the feeling seemed higher than ever. But still it was the same ones doing the talking.
"Cattle kings." The Virginian's voice, echoing my thoughts, made me jump. "Reckon you'd call them that."
"You mean the ranchers around here?" I said.
"That's right," he said. "They's eight or ten of them come in here during the last few years. And over to Wind River they tell me they're doing the same. They come in with lots of dough and fling a little here and a little there; they pick up a small ranch here and another be- yond it — and before you know it, all the little ranchers has been bought out."
"Why do they sell if they don't want to?" I asked.
"Some of them want to, or they get offered so much they can't pass
it up. And some don't want to but have to."
"Why 'have* to?"
He rolled an eye at me. "There's ways," he said. "They get the bank to foreclose maybe or — other ways."
"Virginian," I said, "was that what you meant when you talked about rustlers?"
"Did I talk about rustlers?" he said. "Well, now, I thought it was you talked about 'em."
"Well, then, millionaires."
He grinned at me over his glass. "Millionaires," he said. "Million- aires and politicians. I'll tell you, when you get them two kinds of folks boiling up together you're in for trouble. Boil up into one of these pressure groups, like they talk about, I guess. Anyway, you're liable to have some mighty queer doings."
"Such as rustling? Not really rustling."
"Well, no, not really. Not at all, I guess. They don't take a man's cattle away and brand 'em. But here's what they do. Supposing there's a small ranch near to theirs and the owner won't sell and they can't buy up the mortgage or there ain't one, and they can't get him out nohow. Here's what they do: they range their cattle along with his and then, when they start drifting to the winter range, their hands get the orders: 'Drift all the cattle/ So they drift the little feller's hun- dred head along with their thousand —drift 'em all."
He saw the protest in my eyes and raised a hand.
"Sure," he said, "the little feller raises a howl. He goes to the big rancher and says, 'You're taking my
50
Planning and Civic Comment
bunch along with yours/ and the big feller says, 'Oh, are we? Now ain't that too bad. Well, you just come on down and cut 'em out. You'll get 'em back again.' Well, the little feller spends three to four days get- ting his stock back; most likely has to hire a hand or two to help him. Next year the same thing happens, and each time, maybe, he'll lose a few head coming or going. After three or four times, the little feller's ready to quit."
"Can't he do anything about it? I should think he'd sick the sheriff on them."
"The sheriff won't mess with stuff like that; too hard to prove any- thing, too touchy. And then there's always the question who pays the most taxes, the big feller or the little one."
"It sounds like the old days, all right," I said. "Do the people know what's going on?"
"Most of them know. They know the valley is getting into the control of a little crowd that are running things with a high hand, or trying to. They don't like it, but what can they do?"
"I don't know," I said. "Write to the papers maybe."
"They ain't but one paper here," he said disgustedly. "And it don't ever print anything but one side. You take this Monument row now—"
He paused. His blue eyes, looking across at me held a measure of doubt.
"All right," I said, "I'll take it. Do the rustling millionaires and politicians tie in with the Monu- ment row?"
Carefully he set his glass down.
He sat staring at it. "They do," he said. "Everything ties in with it. It's a lot bigger thing than the folks around here think."
I knew he was right. Those op- posed to the Monument had played it up as a land-grabbing scheme. They compared it to TVA and other projects in which they accused the government of abrogating the rights of the individual. The Monument issue, that oi all national parks, is closely integrated with the whole land policy of the country. Con- servation of forests and game, flood control, prevention of erosion, ir- rigation— all these great projects are branches of the same tree, and they can all be attacked from the same angle: Should the government be allowed to own land or to exer- cise jurisdiction over it?
Or, if you were on the other side, you said: Should the individual, for his private interests, be allowed to despoil the land of America, or prevent its use for the good of all the people? Because in essence it is the land of America. As long as a man's land is subject to taxation, there is no such thing as private ownership. It is a carefully nur- tured tree, I thought, this of our land policy, but it is a new growth and delicate, and once you start lopping off a branch here and there — the national park policy, game conservation, forest reserve — you may have the whole thing coming down.
The Virginian was speaking aga n. 'One thing that ties in with it is conservation," he said. "That's been a big thing in this country ever since Teddy Roosevelt started hol- lering about it." He paused. "My
51
Planning and Civic Comment
uncle guided Teddy Roosevelt when he was out here in 1906."
"No wonder you're interested in the Monument."
"Sure thing," he sa'd. "They packed all through this country from the headwaters of the Yellowstone on down. Teddy Roosevelt said it was the finest camping country in the United States, and that it ought to be kept like it was forever. And he got to work on making a park out of it. And now here's an- other Roosevelt putting the thing across — or trying to."
"And being fought by the same 'interests' that used to fight T. R.," I said.
"That's right," he said. "And they're using the same old argu- ments."
"How far did T. R. go with it?" I asked.
"Not far. Only talked and shouted, and got some Congressmen interested one way or the other. It went along, with different ones taking it up, and finally the con- servationists began to push it hard. They wanted it made a kind of park — not like Yellowstone, all fixed up, but kept just like it is, for people that wanted to see what the West was like or that might want to stay or to camp and fish. The man who pushed it hardest was Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He'd bought up a lot of land with just that plan in mind : to turn it over to the govern- ment. He started in 1926, and he kept trying to get the government to take it over but they dilly-dallied along, the way they do. Finally, what with taxes and all, Mr. Rocke- feller got fed up and last year he suddenly sent a take-it-or-leave-it
letter to Secretary Ickes. Well, it was either take it then or lose it altogether, and Ickes and the Presi- dent went ahead and took it."
"They got more than they bar- gained for," I said.
''Maybe," he said. "They got a lot, all i ight. But I guess they must have expected it. The Republicans wouldn't let a chance like that go by in an election year. And every one of these cattlemen are Republicans. They must have expected an al- mighty row."
"I don't suppose they thought Congress would turn it down, though."
"Congress!" the Virginian snorted. "It wasn't Congress. It was just a small crowd that pressured the rest of 'em into it. Congress don't know anything about it. Why, do you reckon that if Congress had known about it, if they'd ever seen this place here, they'd have done such a fool thing?" He shook his head. "Congress," he said, "has got some fools in it, and it's got some heels, like any other bunch of people, but it ain't got that many of either one."
He snorted again and sat back. "I'll tell you, every argument used about this question is phony. They say this is cattle country and the government is taking it away from the cattlemen. Well, there's some good ranches to the south, and not one of them is going to be interfered with; those people and their 'heirs and assigns,' it says, keep their rights as long as they have a mind. But to the north, the country I've taken you in, that's not cattle coun- try and never has been. They's a few small ranches along the edge of it and they won't have to quit either,
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Planning and Civic Comment
but the big ranchers that's been putting their stock up there these last two years, where they had no right to be, they'll have to quit."
"Are they the ones you were talking about?"
He nodded. "They've been lun- ning their cattle up there and they've been doing it for just two reasons: they want to have it so that when folks say, 'That ain't cattle country up there,' they can come right back at 'em. 'It sure is ' they'll say. 'Look at all the cattle that's up there right now.' And the other reason is on account of the game. Their cattle is using the elk and moose grazing ground and the game is being moved out. What's more, they work on the game commission and get them to have an open season on elk; right here on this land where the elk is accustomed to gather on their way to the winter feeding grounds. You see, they've got to prove their point: that this is cattle country and not game country. So, then, if the elk is shot off last year and this, the case is proved — no game. No game! Why three years ago I could take you up any draw on Pacific Creek and show you elk. But did we see any this year? Nary a one. Heard 'em bugle a few times and heard shots, but that was all. They're killing the bear, too; I haven't seen a bear track in weeks.
"The Country that's the greatest wildlife country we've got is going to be turned over to cattle. And they somebody's going to be sorry. Back up there are the headwaters of three river systems: the Yellow- stone that flows into the Missouri and the Mississippi, the Snake that flows north into the Columbia, and
53
the Green that flows into the Col- orado. Set cattle to grazing on the headwaters of a stream and what happens? Within a few years they've grazed off the underbrush and trampled the meadows and you begin to get erosion and runoffs in the spring." He straightened up. "That ain't cattle country now and it never ought to be."
"Cattle being the biggest industry in Wyoming, I suppose cattlemen are pretty powerful."
"You're right there," he said, "But the politicians are making a big mistake in kowtowing to them like they do. A lot of the big money that's come into the state lately has come through dudes, the kind that comes out for a summer and then buys land and stays, and the tour- ists, millions of 'em, that come just to see the country. Talk about tax revenues — you ask some of these old-timers how much money Teton County had before the dude ranchers settled around here, and the boys' and girls' summer camps, and be- fore Mr. Rockefeller moved in. It wasn't cattle that brought those folks here or that keeps them a-comin'."
He raised his hand as if I had spoken. "Oh, I know what they say," he said. "They say the government already controls 72 per cent of Wyoming and it oughtn't to have any more. But what is that 72 percent? A part of it is moun- tain ranges like the Wind Rivers and the Absarokas and the Big Horns and the Tetons; glacier coun- try, forest country; mountain sheep and elk and grizzly country. In the parts where cattle can live, why there is cattle, and sheep and horses,
Planning and Civic Comment
grazing; and they lease the mining rights, too, like any company would do, only they control it so it don't get grazed off or mined out. That's only sense, as I see it."
"Virginian," I said, "there have been a lot of people opposed to the Monument. Some of them are bound to be sincere. In fact, some that I've talked to are sincere, I'm sure of it."
"A lot are," he said. "I'm sure of it, too."
"All right, then, what about them?" I said. "What about their arguments? You know them."
"I know them. Sure. And there's hardly a one of them that isn't cockeyed in some way. They don't mean to talk cockeyed. They're sincere, like you said. But they've been taken in. Just like Congress. They believe the talk that's going round. They believe, for instance, the talk that the Monument was put over on them. Well, it wasn't. This Monument was established just like dozens of others, by Presi- dential proclamation."
"But maybe it's true that nobody knew this park was being planned."
"Eyewash," said the Virginian. "That was first brought up seriously out here in 1923 when a croHvd got together at Menor's Ferry to talk about it. But the real thing got going when Mr. Rockefeller came in and got the idea. That was in 1926. He talked it over with various ones in and out of the government, and then he started to buy up the land. Well, as soon as he'd been in here a year folks knew about it. Look here," the Virginian said again, shaking a long finger at me, "you ask folks outside the valley —
over to Wind River or Grovont. They'll tell you they all knew about it. You mean to tell me if they knew about it the ones living right here didn't?"
"If the Rockefeller holdings and the other ranches went into a park, that'd make a lot of difference to the tax revenue of the county, wouldn't it?" I said. "I've heard them say so, and I don't see how you can get around that."
"You can't get around the argu- ment," he said, "because it's right. But you can get around the fact. That's what I mean about this cockeyed talking. Here they've been pulling this argument on you and a lot of other people, and all the time there was three bills up before Congress to fix things. Why, one reason the Monument was held up first at Washington was because they hadn't got it fixed to reimburse the county for the taxes lost. One of the bills proposed is bound to pass, and it will affect not only this county but all counties near to national parks. They'd all get a cut in the revenue from the park."
"Well," I said, "that ought to do. They told me up in Yellowstone that they averaged over two million dollars a year from tourist expendi- tures."
"That's right, I guess," he said. "Teton Park, which was a part of this, pulls in around a hundred and fifty thousand. A cut on that'd go quite some distance in Teton County." He sat back. "Do you know," he said, "that only 8 per cent of this land we're talking about is privately owned? That, and the Rockefeller holdings, which may be thrown on the open market, for all
54
Planning and Civic Comment
we know, if this plan is killed. All the rest of it is government land already, part park, part forest re- serve. For 8 percent of land, the whole project is to be given up."
He grunted. "It's a mighty queer business," he said. 'They talk about 'land-grabbing* and the 'rights of the individual.' Holy Ike! In the first place the rights of the people that own land won't be bothered at all, and what about the rights of all the rest of the country! Don't that make any difference?"
"A lot of people were back of them, though," I said. "And then Congress came out on their side."
"That's right," he said. "This feller Barrett, backed by the cattle- men and the states' rights boys and the Roosevelt haters, — don't forget them, — got his bill passed to abolish the Monument." He pointed a finger at me, "You listen!" he said. "If they abolish this park, what's to prevent them from going on and abolishing others? What's to stop another crowd from starting to muscle in on Glacier or Yosemite or even old Yellowstone?"
"Some of the millions of people that love the parks would want to stop them," I said.
"And you can bet that's just what the President figured when he ve- toed the bill," he said.
"But, Virginian," I said, "I can't believe these people here want to abolish the parks. Why, one man told me the idea of a park here in Jackson Hole would have been fine. 'It's a beautiful dream,' he said, 'only it's fifty years too late and now it's going to hurt too many people.'"
"Sure, and the man who told you that will go on and tell you that
they've already got one park here and that's enough. He won't tell you that he called that 'a beautiful dream,' too, and that he and his friends fought it just like they fought this." The Virginian looked at me quizzically. "I bet he told you how parks interfered with life out here and how the man tried to take his bull through Yellowstone in a truck and wasn't allowed. Eh?"
"Why, yes, he did," I said. "And that didn't seem quite right, I must say."
"It wasn't quite right," he grinned. "It was hardly right at all. They wasn't one bull and one truck, but two-three hundred head of cattle on the hoof. It's against the rules of Ye owstone to d ive cattle through. There was no rules to prevent cattle being driven in this Jackson Ho!e Monument."
The Virginian picked up his glass and shook it. "You know," he said, "if you listen to these folks long enough you'll go plumb loco. Here they are talking this stuff, like you told me, about parks spoiling things and them wanting to keep this country like it is. And the rock- bottom reason for parks is to keep the country like it is." He set his glass down with a thump. "How're they going to keep it like it is, d'you ever ask them? How can they stop real-estate fellers coming in here and building hotels and developments and cutting up the lake shores into lots with camps and such? How're they going to stop roads being run through with signs and hot-dog stands up and down 'em? There'd be a good deal of money in all that for somebody."
He banged his fist on the table.
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Planning and Civic Comment
"You'd be surprised what great Americans these folks are. They'll tell you how this country was built out of a wilderness by free men and no government to interfere with 'em. 'We want to keep this country free,' they'll shout. And they'll bang on the table— like I'm doing." He laughed. "And then, before you know it, they'll start throwing com- munism at you."
"I know," I said. "They did."
He groaned. "If we get com- munism in this country," he said, "it'll be because of those folks yelling about it. Sometimes, you know, I get to wondering what's happened to democracy. You don't ever hear about it any more. Here you have a government trying to do something that will benefit the people of the whole country. If that ain't democ- racy, I don't know what is. But no — according to these folks, that's communism. Communism my — hat!" he said.
His face was grim. He sat back in his chair and his gaze traveled down the long, narrow room to the bright space at the end where the light shone down on the green tables, winking on the whirling wheel and cutting black shadows on the faces under the big hats. Slowly his eyes came back to me.
"You was talking about the Old West," he said, "and I told you there was still some of it left. Well, ma'am, here it is, in this valley. And it always can be here if we'll just keep a-holt of it. I read something a while back — it was poetry." His
eyes dropped to the table for a moment, then looked straight at me. "I got it by memory," he said.
" 'Where snowpeaks reach the running light of morning
The travois poles drag through the
meadow-grass, The mountain sheep stamps his tattoo of
warning
Against the trapper's pack-mules as they pass.' "
He set his glass down. " 'Where snowpeaks reach the running light of morning.' That's it," he said. "When you wake up just before sunup and look out at it, and you hear the horse-bells and the splash- ing in the creek, and maybe a coyote yowling before he hides away. And then you roll out and boil your coffee and fry your bacon and pack up. And start on. That's it," he said.
The game at the back of the room was beginning to break up. The men were lounging up to the bar for a last drink before starting home. But the Virginian sat on.
"Well," I said.
"Well," he said. He smiled across at me. "I want to keep it," he said. "In this valley we've got the finest scenery, the finest camping country, in the West. If the government will help us to keep it, O.K. After all, ain't the government us, when you come down to it? You and me and all the rest of the people in the U. S.? Ain't we got a right to keep what's ours? Look," he said, "we got this place, this — good place." His face flushed. "We want to keep it," he said.
56
Changes in the State Planning Boards
Arkansas: The last session of the legislature consolidated the follow- ing commissions, boards and com- mittees: State Planning Board, Agri- cultural and Industrial Commission, The Forestry Department, Geologi- cal Survey, Park Commission, Flood Control, and Soil Conservation Com- mission. These are now known as the Arkansas Resources and De- velopment Commission. There are fifteen Board Members with B. T. Fooks of Camden, Arkansas, as Chairman.
Colorado: George F. Dodge, Di- rector of Public Relations, Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is now Chairman of the State Planning Commission. A Colorado State Year Book has recently been issued.
Indiana: Mrs. Teresa Zimmerly is no longer associated with the Council. Raymond L. Pike is Director.
Massachusetts: Archibald K. Sloper, formerly Chairman of Grey- lock Reservation Commission, has recently been appointed Commis- sioner of Conservation and as such becomes ex officio member of the State Planning Board.
Mississippi: John T. Kimball is Executive Director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Industrial Board. T. D. Davis is Assistant Director.
Missouri: The Department of Re- sources and Development is now starting to compile a list of projects by state, county and industrial or- ganizations. The Acting Director is Hugh Denney.
Montana: The State Planning Board has been inactive for the last four or five years because of the failure of the Legislature to make
appropriations to carry on activities. The members of the Board, how- ever, are members of the State Water Conservation Board which has been developing projects to be constructed during the peace-time era. The last Legislature provided for the appointment of a new Board, but the Governor has not yet made these appointments.
New Jersey: The State Planning Board was abolished as of July 1,
1944 and its functions and per- sonnel transferred to the new De- partment of Economic Development. The Department is divided into four Divisions, one being the Di- vision of Planning and Engineering, under which is the Bureau of Plan- ning, headed by T. Ledyard Blake- man.
North Carolina: The Chairman- ship of the State Planning Board is unfilled. Felix A. G isette is Man- aging Director and headquarters are located at 402-8 Alumni Build- ing, Chapel Hill, N. C.
South Carolina: At the recent session of the Legislature the State Planning Board was abolished and the State Department of Research, Planning and Development was created. Members of the Board of the new Department are: Tom B. Pearce, Chairman, Roger C. Peace, Josiah J. Evans, Stanley Llewellen, Homer M. Pace, and Robert M. Cooper.
Washington: The State Planning Council no longer exists. A law of
1945 creates the Division of Prog- ress and Industry Development in the Department of Conservation and Development.
57
Commentaries
J. C. Nichols, in Technical Bulletin No. i, of the Urban Land Institute pre- sents an extensive survey of the mis- takes which he feels the Country Club District has made over a period of forty years. We can here list only a few of the 69 growing pains by which Mr. Nichols arrived at his present estate of successful creator of the famous Coun- try Club District in Kansas City. In the beginning, Mr. Nichols says, they overestimated their market, creat- ing too large a carrying load in interest, taxes and maintenance. They failed to anticipate large increased taxes on land held for future development. They re- lied on tax assessors to rate undevel- oped land and vacant lots at wholesale value. They installed street improve- ments and utilities on too much land in advance of sales. They placed restric- tions on too large areas in advance of knowing the demand. In the early days they restricted land only as it was sold; today they file a restriction on each area as it is platted. They built wider side- walks and wider paving than necessary on minor streets; they created too short blocks; they made deeper lots for smaller homes than many buyers will ' pay for or use; they made the mistake of selling lots as narrow as 45 feet, but now are plotting nothing less than 50 feet and trying to hold 60 feet as a minimum width even for the smallest house. They have found neighborhood objections to interior-block playgrounds and now favor additional play area adjoining public schools. The seventeen churches in the Country Club District turned out to be too many and too close together, creating competing park- ing problems. Off-street parking and wider pavements are needed adjoining churches.
Here are a few of the lessons learned: Preserve fine open vistas; try to make the poorest property the best in the subdivision; blend low and medium and medium and high priced homes in
neighborhoods. Mr. Nichols believes in Home Associations — there are 19 in the Country Club District. At first bill- boards were permitted. Now there are none. Plans should include future school sites, transportation facilities and pro- vision for buffer strips to protect prop- erty values from encroachment.
But, most important of all is the ad- vice for developers to keep in close touch with Planning and Zoning Com- missions and Park and Public Works officials, to cooperate with them and then see that the subdivision fits the master plan of the city.
Mr. Marcus W. Lewis, a member of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, has presented the Association with a Replica of a Map of Washington in 1792. It shows the three little villages of CarroIIsburg, Hamburgh and George- town and it indicates the boundaries of the wooded land and the names of the owners, among which may be found those of Carroll, Walker, Oden, David- son, Burnes (the recalcitrant gentleman referred to by George Washington), Blodget, Lynch, Sands, Holmead, Peter. Jenkins Hill, the future site of the Capitol is ringed in. Mason's Island is shown, but this was many years before Potomac Park was dredged out of the flats of the Potowmack River.
A few years ago Mr. Lewis presented the Association with a copy of the first edition of the bound McMillan Report on The Improvement of the Park Sys- tem of the District of Columbia.
Louis P. Croft, Adviser on Land Planning in the Office o/ the President of the Philippines, on April 24 wrote:
Times have been hectic and exciting in Manila since February 3. The first month was horrible confusion and March and
58
Planning and Civic Comment
April found the city planning of Manila a center of beehive activity. Before the war we had prepared the skeleton plan of Manila and luckily it was saved from the fire and demolition. Unfortunately we lost many detail plans, particularly those of Cebu. We are now revising the Cebu master plan and concentrating on the de- tail plans of Manila. In a month or two we shall have completed the necessary draft- ing for publication, of the Preliminary Master Plan of Manila. The ground work for publicity, the creation of an informal city planning association and the revising of the building codes and zoning ordinances are the large tasks before us now. The Planning Office had membership in your Association in 1941 and it was certainly a valuable asset in the Far East. We shall keep you informed of planning activities in the Islands. The possibilities are tre- mendous and fascinating. The destruction of the heart of the cities affords an op- portunity to carry out a few planning dreams.
Arthur Sburdiff has sent Horace Albright for the archives of the Ameri- can Planning and Civic Association a Report oj the Commission on Metropolitan Improvements, appointed under the Resolves of 1907 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Three members of the Commission were appointed by the Governor and two by the Mayor of Boston. The Report ran to 320 pages with many folding maps. The Com- mission secured the services of George R. Wadsworth, Civil Engineer, who was assigned to the study of the steam rail- road systems and their terminals for the purpose of ascertaining what improve- ments were required for the best public service. Arthur A. Shurcliff, Landscape Architect, was entrusted with the study of the topography of the district, with a careful examination of the scheme of connecting highways, and their suffi- ciency as a means of such internal com- munication. To Richard A. Hale, civil engineer, was assigned the consideration of the feasibility of constructing arti- ficial water ways or canals in Massachu- setts, and their possible relation to the development of the commerce of the port of Boston. This may well be the earliest planning report on a metropoli-
tan district, since the Chicago Plan Reptrt of 1908 was mainly for the water front district, and the Kings high way Commission Report of 1904 was only on one phase of city planning within Saint Louis. Massachusetts was ever a pioneer.
The Annual Report of the Director oj the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior has now been reprinted in a separate pamphlet. Secretary I ekes in his letter to the President points out that:
"Despite the issuance of more than 1,000 authorizations to war agencies for the use of park lands and facilities, there has been but little impairment of park features. They would have been impaired if we had yielded to organized group pres- sures, without questioning the alleged critical necessity for invading the parks, or if we had not helped to explore alternative courses of action, when the use of resources in the parks was proposed .....
"There recently was published in the Congressional Record, by the chairman of the Public Lands Committee of the House of Representatives, a petition signed by more than 100 leading citizens and busi- ness people of the Jackson Hole Region, asking that this area, rich in scenery, wild- life and historical interest, be preserved for park and recreational purposes, ratherv than allow it to go the way of unplanned exploitation. . . .
"The need (for Army aircraft construc- tion) was met without destroying the magnificent 'rain forests' of Olympic National Park. ... It has not been necessary, either, to open the national parks of California to cattle grazing. The situation that confronted the cattle in- dustry in the State during the drought was serious, but the use of the meadows and uplands of the parks in the Sierra Nevada for grazing would have accommodated fewer than one-half of 1 percent of Cali- fornia's approximately 1,400,000 beef cattle, and that only for a brief period. This inconsiderable aid would have been out of proportion to the resultant damage to public properties. ...
Two important areas were added to the National Park System during the year — 700,000-acre Big Bend National Park on the Rio Grande in Texas, through the donation of lands by that State, and the
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Planning and Civic Comment
home of Franklin D. Roosevelt national historic site. . . .
"Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, 4,135,000 men and women in uniform have visited the national parks and allied areas."
The suggestion of the Garden Club oj America to the Save-tbe-Redwoods League for a NATIONAL TRIBUTE GROVE OF EVER-LIVING RED- WOODS is now being sponsored by a National Committee on which Horace M. Albright, Frederic A. Delano, Newton and Aubrey Drury, A. P. Giannini, J. Horace McFarland, E. D. Merrill, and Ray Lyman Wilbur of the American Planning and Civic Association are members. The Committee is headed by the Hon. Joseph C. Grew. The grove would be preserved in honor of the men and women who are serving and who have served our country in the armed forces in World War II. The Garden Club of America has set aside $5,000 as its contribution to this National Tribute Grove.
Scbenectady has issued a Report of the Interdepartmental Postwar Plan- ning Committee on Postwar Projects. The publication sets forth a list of public works from which to select the most desirable under the established adminis- tration policy of "Pay-as-you-go."
Charles Seymore, Chairman oj The Postwar Planning Board of Connecticut has submitted to Governor Raymond E. Baldwin a sixty-page Interim Report on Postwar Connecticut. Included is information on Community Develop- ment and Housing, Education, Finance, Industry and Labor, Medical Care and
Health, Public Utilities and Transporta- tion, Public Works, Recreation, and Rural Life and Agriculture.
The City Plan Commission oj Detroit has prepared a Report on the economic activities and problems of Detroit as a part of its basic research towards a Master Plan. We are in receipt of the statistical material, findings and con- clusions which have been summarized in a Report under the title "The Economic Base." George F. Emory is Secretary and City Planner and Ladislas Segoe is Planning Consultant of the Commission.
We have received from H. Evert Kincaid, Executive Director of the Chicago Plan Commission an 80-page publication, entitled Chicago Looks Ahead. The program is proposed ^ for accomplishment in a ten-year period. The projects in housing, health, water, sewage treatment, fire, police, parks, playgrounds and schools have been studied in relation to the existing physi- cal structure of the city and, it is stated, can be integrated within the framework of the city plan.
Planning Your Community is the title of a Manual of Suggestions for Practical Community Planning by C. Earl Morrow, issued by the Regional Plan Association oj New York, with a Fore- word by George McAneny, Chairman of the Board. This is a small 42-page booklet, clearly printed, which presents a great deal of sound advice and guid- ance and a number of pertinent warn- ings. A good bibliography is included.
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AMD CIVIC ANNUAL FOR 1944 contains a Retrospect of Forty Years of Civic Planning and a Prospect for Better Living through Planning. The addresses of the many eminent speakers at the Saint Louis Citizens Conference on Planning are included. The ANNUAL is a must for all who wish to keep abreast of planning throught and progress in the United States. Price $3 or included with PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT, issued quarterly, in Mem- bership in the American Planning and Civic Association or the National Conference on State Parks.
60
Strictly Personal
Leon Zach, Chief, Site Planning Section, Office of Chief Engineers, received the highest of the War Department's civilian awards on January 27, 1945. In the presence of several high-ranking Army officers, a citation was read, signed by Hon. Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War. His accomplishments have been largely in two fields: the .election of sites and planning of layouts for Army installations.
Mr. Colean will meet with builders and manufacturers to help interpret postwar consumer needs for industry's use.
Louis Brownlow announced his retirement on April 30th, as Direc- tor of the Public Administration Clearing House. Herbert Emmer- ich was appointed as Mr. Brown- low's successor and took over his new duties on May 1.
. . . David E. Finley, Director of the
article m the March 1945 ,ssue of National Gallery of Art, Wash-
New Jersey Municipalities entitled, ; ton> D Q was elected president
B°t \°Ur Tuhmking Now in of the American Association of
which the author advocates com- Museums to succeed Dr. Qark
prehensive planning. Wissler.
On the 85th Anniversary of his birth and for the third time in 15 years, Dr. J. Horace McFarland was honored by having a newly developed member of the rose family named for him. The "Horace Mc- Farland" rose is a buff-salmon hy- brid tea rose of rare beauty that blooms monthly from June until frost.
Miles Colean, well-known hous- ing authority, has joined the editor- ial staff of House Beautiful as liaison officer between the public, and the magazine. In his capacity as consultant for House Beautiful,
The unexpired term of the late Alfred Bettman as a member of the Cincinnati City Planning Com- mission, has been fil ed by the ap- pointment of Ernest Pickering, head of the division of architecture at the University of Cincinnati, who is also president of the Cin- cinnati Chapter, A. I. A.
Roland Wank, formerly head architect for the TVA and chief consulting architect for REA has resigned from the government ser- vice to join the design staff of Albert Kahn, Associates, architects and engineers of Detroit, Mich.
61
Watch Service Report
National Parks
H. R. 2691 (Barrett) introduced March 20, 1945. To provide for the administration of all public lands in the Jackson Hole National Monument by the Forest Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands.
National Planning
H. R. 2852-S. 923 (King-McCarran) introduced April 5, 1945. To create a Natural Resources Board. Referred to the Committee on the Public Lands. This bill would create a board to be known as the Natural Resources Board to be composed of the Sec- retaries of the Interior, War, Agriculture, Commerce and seven individuals who shall be appointed by the President, selected so as to give each section of the country repre- sentation on the Board. The duty of the Board shall be to conduct surveys and studies for the purpose of obtaining data and information regarding the natural resources of the U. S. and recommend plans for the conservation, development and utilization of such natural resources. •
S. 380 (Murray, Wagner, Thomas of Utah and O'Mahoney) introduced January 22, 1945. To establish a national policy and program for continuing full employment in a free competitive economy with provision for the President to transmit to Congress at the beginning of each session a National Production and Employment Budget, and the es- tablishment of a Joint Committee on the National Budget in Congress.
Regional Planning
H. R. 2540 (Bender) introduced March 8, 1945. To establish an Ohio Valley Author- ity to provide for unified water control and resource development on the Ohio River and surrounding region in the interest of the control and prevention of floods, the promotion of navigation and reclamation of the public lands, the promotion of the general welfare of the area, the strengthening of the national defense, and for other purposes. Referred to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors.
H. R. 170 (Cannon of Mo.) introduced Jan. 3, 1945. To authorize a National Miss- issippi River Parkway. Public hearings before Committee on Public Lands on June 5.
Urban Redevelopment
The Urban Land Institute reports the status of urban redevelopment legislation in the States as follows:
Group I: Redevelopment Corporation Laws. These bills encourage large private financial institutions to participate in slum clearance through the construction of housing projects. Introduced in 16 state legislatures, bills were passed in 10 States (Illinois, Kansas, Ken- tucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Wiscon- sin).
Group II: Housing Redevelopment Laws. These bills enlarge the powers of local housing authorities making them the development agency with emphasis on housing of the low income group. Introduced recently in 18 States, passed in four States (Arkansas, Con- necticut, Illinois and Tennessee).
Group III: Redevelopment Land Agency Laws. These bills establish new redevelopment agencies which are controlled wholly by the local government. They have power to as- semble land, issue bonds, and sell or lease the land to private enterprise in accordance with an approved comprehensive plan. Passed in seven States (Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and short bill in New York). Other bills of this kind have also been drafted for Ohio, Oregon and several have been proposed for the D. C
Status unchanged on National Park and Pollution-Control bills since last issue.
62
Book Reviews
PLEASANT VALLEY. Louis Bromfield. Harper & Bros. 1945.
In Pleasant Valley, Louis Brom- field is at his best. With all the skill acquired in his writing years, he tells the story of how he came to return to Pleasant Valley and set up an agricultural experiment at Mala- bar, which he hopes will provide a home and living for his family for generations to come. The pen and ink sketches by Kate Lord (wife of Russell Lord, Editor of The Land) give the reader an idea of the artis- try of the buildings and the charm of the native landscape. But the real plot of the story is found in the restoration of wornout farms by modern soil-conservation methods, not only on the thousand acres of Malabar, but on the farms of many neighbors.
Louis Bromfield knows and works with the people of the valley. He tells their stories and compares their lot to those of the French villagers where he lived before he returned to Ohio. He makes the utmost use of the agricultural services available. He has not only adopted the pro- grams proposed by the Soil Conser- vation Service, but has conducted experiments which are opening up new horizons for farmers.
Perhaps the sound scientific and economic principles which are ap- plied at Malabar might not seem so exciting if the place itself were not so picturesque to the eye and the life lived there so full of adventure
and stimulating conversation, for Louis Bromfield has a guiding philosophy, a sort of creed as it were. At the end he declares:
I believe that one day our soil and our forests from one end of the country to the other will be well managed and our sup- plies of water will be abundant and clean. I believe that there will be abundance for all as God and Nature intended, an abun- dance properly distributed when man has the wisdom to understand and solve such things. I believe that there will be no more floods to destroy the things man has worked to create and even man himself, and that the abomination of the great industrial cities will become a thing of the past, the men and women, and above all else, the children, will live in smaller com- munities in which there can be health and decency and human dignity, and that when that time comes, the people then living will look back upon us and the stupidity of our times as we look back with unbelief at the squalor and oppression and misery of the Middle Ages.
For one who loves the land, live stock, architecture and people, this book is a must.
TIME FOR PLANNING. A Social-Economic Theory and Program for the Twentieth Century. Lewis L. Lorwin. Harper & Bros. 1945.
Mr. Lorwin speaks as an econo- mist familiar with the literature of his field and convinced of its domi- nating influence. It seems a little strange to many practicing city planners to see the term planning adopted outright, without qualifying
63
Planning and Civic Comment
adjective, by those who speak another language.
A National Economic Council or Planning Board would head up what Mr. Lorwin calls the N*w American- ism. He predicts a shift from the "materialism and determinism" of the 18th and 19th centuries to the "creative energism" of the 20th cen- tury. He contends that a "new social synthes s may be developed along lines of what may be called social-energetic relativism."
Mr. Lorwin outlines four types of social-economic planning:
1. The absolute socialist, with central- ized system of economic and social life in which production, consumption, standards of living, and all economic processes are subject to a unified control and are directly determined. He comments that at present no country is in a position to contemplate this as a practical possibility.
2. Of the practical state-socialist type which, in Soviet economic planning, covers production and production budgeting, he says: "Thousands of factories in a variety of industries covering almost the entire range of modern industrial activity are directed on the basis of a single budget by the Supreme Council of National Economy. In Russia, the problem of adjusting supply and demand is relatively simple, since there is no fear of over production."
3. In the voluntary business type of economic planning which dominates the current proposals of businessmen he finds that there is a certain agreement that the profit motive alone is no longer an adequate guide to business and that businessmen must evolve larger social incentives and objectives, including security for the worker, larger purchasing power for the masses and more leisure. While preserving the freedoms of consumption, movement, occupation and of contract, the advocates of this type of planning would like to limit the decisions of individual owners or cor- porate groups in fixing the amount of production so that the industrial group as a whole might exercise some control over members of the business community who refuse to conform to the plans of the entire group.
4. "The social-progressive type of
economic planning, directed toward se- curity and a higher standard of living," Mr. Lorwin maintains, "calls for some measure of redistributing income which could serve as a basis of increasing mass purchasing power." Specifically, "without upsetting the entire scheme of private property, the social-progressive type of planning calls for a planning agency which has some authority to make employers and businessmen follow the economic lines best possible from the national point of view. While rejecting coercive methods, it sees the necessity of some central and unifying agency, which can apply governmental pressure if necessary, and which can grad- ually apply the principle of planning on a larger scale." The planning agency would avoid outright price fixing, but would constantly urge industry to meet the real needs of the people and utilize all pro- ductive capacity at minimum prices allow- ing for reasonable pro'fits. Producers would be allowed to make their own prices sub- ject to investigation and inquiry by the planning agency and all business would have to reckon with a fair and reasonable profit.
It is this latter type of planning which Mr. Lorwin selects as appli- cable to the United States. He has great faith that Government leaders will somehow find the knowledge, the wisdom and the discretion to decide for the people on a national scale what, when and where they shall produce.
The proposed planning agency for economic control would depart from the conception which has dominated so-called physical planning, as an over-all advisory board, with a tech- nical staff, serving executive de- partments, dependent upon the reasonableness of its program, and would become in itself an adminis- trative department clothed with authority. Whether this combina- tion of function and field would bring recognized benefits to the American people, may be open to question. In our bright lexicon planning is in the nature of a staff
64
Planning and Civic Comment
service and governmental controls are exercised by duly authorized administration line agencies.
CITY DEVELOPMENT. Studies in Dis- integration and Renewal. Lewis Mum- ford. Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1945.
Lewis Mumford has here col- lected former writings now inacces- sible, and which were prepared, ac- cording to Mr. F. J. Osborn, as "another form of American aid to Britain, on general lease-lend terms." Mr. Mumford's picturesque dia- tribes against the modern industrial city and its mass production are well known. For the most part they are shared by those who value the earth, sky, trees and all the rest of the natural world.
Mr. Mumford has presented his admirable report on Honolulu as a sort of appendix to The Culture of Cities. He believes in durable, long- range planning, that park planning is a coordinate branch of city plan- ning and is related to renewal of blighted districts and replacement of slums, the opening up of middle- class suburban subdivisions, and the restriction of a premature and un- economic suburban development.
In the essays written for British consumption, Mr. Mumford re- states and, to a degree, revises his philosophy. He declares:
Good planning in the postwar age, will rest on the solid foundations of the family and the region; it -will emphasize the biological and social needs of the people and it will treat industrial and financial needs as subordinate ones. It will be less afraid of the primitive than of the over- sophisticated; it will distrust what is over- grown, mechanically complicated, given to technical over-refinement; it will be as reluctant to build subways and mammoth transportation networks as the population of sixth-century Rome was to build new
baths and amphitheaters. I do not by this mean that we have already regressed such a considerable distance toward the Dark Ages: indeed, I mean just the opposite, for by energetically commanding the forces of life, while there is still time to marshall them and deploy them, we may be able to avoid — as the Romans were not — the collapse of our whole civilization and the wiping out of its many grand and mean- ingful achievements in the arts and
In discussing The Plan oj London, Mr. Mumford extolls the philosophy of Ebenezer Howard and the Garden Cities and hazards a criticism of the County of London Plan that the authors failed to plan for a hundred years. He warns that:
In a country whose reproduction rate is so low that it threatens a considerable de- crease of population by 1970, the failure to face the problem of population as an es- sential key to the correct design of cities is, quite literally, suicidal. . . . To maintain the density the planners propose is to main- tain a corresponding scheme of life, a scheme in which it is easier to keep a dog than to raise a baby, in which one is more tempted to flee from the city on every possible holiday than to dream of enjoying the great social and cultural resources it actually possesses. ... If Messrs. For- shaw and Abercrombie's Plan defies the tastes and traditions of London in reduc- ing the proportion of single-family houses to apartments, it likewise falls short in setting a standard for open spaces.
Finally, the preconditions for the re-planning of London, Mr. Mum- ford holds to be, a national Popula- tion Policy, looking forward to its stabilization; a Policy of Urban Land Utilization which will liquid- ate the present structure of urban values and permit large-scale re- construction to be economically carried on, in a fashion favorable to family life and balanced communal relationships; a National Policy of Industrial Decentralization along
65
Planning and Civic Comment
the lines laid doWn in the Barlow Report; and Regional Administra- tive units that will undertake the task of resettlement and building outside the existing municipal or county areas and will coordinate the work of the municipalities them- selves.
TARGET FOR TOMORROW No. 2. A PLAN FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY. Flora Ste- phenson and Phoebe Pool. Foreword by Dr. Julian Huxley. The Pilot Press. London. 1944.
This 60-page, cloth-bound book, with a bright jacket, is to be found on sale at book stalls and railway stations throughout England. There are excellent airviews, maps and pictures. The book carries a great deal of "spot news," interprets the Scott, Barlow and Uthwatt Reports and introduces Lord Reith who appointed the Scott and Uthwatt Committees; W. S. Morrison, first Minister of Town and Country Planning; and Lord Woolton, Minis- ter of Reconstruction.
TOWN PLANNING AND ROAD TRAFFIC. H. Alker Tripp, Assistant Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard. Foreword by Professor Patrick Abercrombie, Uni- versity of London. London. 1942.
Mr. Tripp approaches the problem from a standpoint of safety. He points out that in the ten years pre- ceding the war, 68,248 persons were killed and 2,107,964 injured on the roads of Great Britain and claims that casualties on that scale are at battle level. He arrives at the con- clusion that arterial traffic and pedes- trians do not mix. He recognizes the benefits of signal controls but maintains that fundamental city planning should not permit arterial
and sub-arterial traffic to come into shopping, business and residence districts. He favors location and design of arterial highways to pro- vide for speed with all the safe- guards hitherto provided for rail- ways. According to his way of thinking, streams of modern motors are infinitely more dangerous than track-bound trains running at in- tervals. He suggests zones or pre- cincts, supplied only with local streets and local street traffic, though reached by arterial or sub- arterial highways. Mr. Tripp de- clares: "The nondescript Traffic Road must go." By this he means that a street is not to be used for all purposes by all sorts of vehicles. The three types of streets — arterial, sub-arterial and local — should be designed for the type of traffic they are to serve. American planners please note.
THE VALLEY AND ITS PEOPLE. A Por- trait of TVA. R. L. Duffus and Charles Krutch. Alfred A. Knopf. 1944.
Mr. Duffus points out the char- acteristics of the turbulent Ten- nessee which, as the settlers cleared the fertile soil, produced increasingly devastating floods, and finally be- came the channel to carry away the precious top soil from vast areas of eroded slopes. The decreasing fer- tility of many of the valley lands had brought poverty to the rural people — a poverty from which they could not extricate themselves.
A combination of soil conserva- tion practices and the use of cheap power has transformed the Valley. Poverty-stricken tenants have be- come proud but hardworking owners.
The TVA has had its troubles —
66
Planning and Civic Commen
internal as well as external — and it is still the object of political attack. No doubt, the Authority has made its own mistakes, but the testimony is conclusive that it has avoided political appointments, that it has cooperated with State and local governmental authorities to bring about sound planning; that it has paid moneys in lieu of taxes; that it has increased the prosperity and welfare of many of the dwellers in the Valley. The case histories of the farmers who, with the help of the agricu tural agencies, have rehabil- itated their farms and themselves bear witness to the human service of TVA. And the immunity of the Valley to disastrous floods would seem to have been established. Mr. Duffus thinks Thomas Jefferson would have liked the TVA.
PHILADELPHIA. Holy Experiment. Stru- thers Burt. Doubleday, Doran & Co. 1945.
Struthers Burt brings together a wealth of historic background and
a regular genesis of individuals and families who have lived and loved Philadelphia. The history is written objectively, though sympathetically, with only occasional references to modern points of view projected backward. To planners, the chap- ters on Green Country Town, Port of Entry and Sweet-Smelling Names will, perhaps, be found most inter- esting. But all readers of the four- hundred-page volume will find that Philadelphia emerges from the story with a distinct, tangy personality. Mr. Burt ends on a nostalgic note:
So there it is, the great sprawling, ob- stinate, tenacious, slow-moving, but stead- ily moving, city, lying between its two rivers. And all around it is its lovely, luxurious countryside. And in it are a hundred things that stir the heart of an American, and a hundred things that make him angry. And what will happen to it, no one knows. But this at least is certain: . . . let the native son, or daugh- ter, come back for a visit, or for good, and they find themselves suddenly and strange- ly happy and content. As they step once more into the narrow crowded streets and smell the soft, sooty air, and see the faces of the people who pass, they are suddenly happy. There must be some sort of magic, mustn't there?
Recent Publications
Compiled by Katherine McNamara, Librarian of the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
ABERCROMBIE, PATRICK. Greater London plan, 1944; a report prepared on behalf of the Standing Conference on London Regional Planning by Professor Aber- crombie at the request of the Minister of Town and Country Planning. Lon- don, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 217 pages. Maps (part folded), tables.
Preliminary edition made available for official purposes; a full edition will be published.
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS, and THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS. Exhibition of the development of Washington from forest to national capital as shown in plans and models arranged by Frederick Law Olmsted, in the Art Gallery . . . New
York City . . . 1944 . . . 1945. [New York], The authors, [1944]. 20 pages.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS. WASHINGTON, D. C. CHAPTER. POST WAR PLANNING COMMITTEE. Memo- randum on urban planning. . . Wash- ington, D. C. Chapter, A. I. A., Post War Planning Committee report. G. Holmes Perkins, ed. Washington, The Chapter, Jan. 1945. 16 pages. Lithoprinted.
AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ASSO- CIATION. American planning and civic annual; a record of recent civic advance in the fields of planning, parks, housing, neighborhood improvement and con- servation of national resources, includ- ing the addresses delivered at the Citi- zens Conference on Planning, held on
67
Planning and Civic Comment
the fortieth anniversary of the organiza- tion of the American Civic Association at St. Louis, Missouri, on June 14, 15, 16, 1944. Ed. by Harlean James. Washington, The Association, 1944. 178 pages. IIIus., tables. Price $3.00 (free to members).
ANDREWS, W. EARLE. Detroit expressway and transit system prepared for Detroit Transportation Board. [Detroit, Mich., The Board], Feb. 1945. 39 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, cross sections, tables, charts.
ASSOCIATION FOR PLANNING AND RE- GIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. Maps for the national plan; a background to the Barlow report, the Scott report, the Beveridge report. London, Lund Hum- phries & Co. Ltd., [1944]. 119 pages. Maps, charts. Price 15s.
ASSOCIATION OF LAND-GRANT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. COMMITTEE ON POSTWAR AGRICULTURAL POLICY. Post- war agricultural policy. The Associa- tion, Oct. 25, 1944. 61 pages.
BLANDFORD, JOHN B., JR. Housing facts and goals; charts on the statement of Administrator John B. Blandford, Jr., National Housing Agency, before the Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Redevelopment of the Special Senate Committee on Post-war Economic Policy and Planning. [Washington], The Agency, Jan. 9, 1945. Various paging. Charts.
THE BOSTON CONTEST, 1944. The Boston contest of 1944. Prize winning programs. Boston, The Boston University Press, 1945. 148 pages. IIIi s., maps, plans, cross section, tables. Price $1.00.
CHICAGO, ILL. PLAN COMMISSION. Chicago looks ahead. Design for public improve- ments. Chicago, The Commission, Mar. 1945. 78 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, tables, charts.
DEAN, JOHN P. Home ownership: is it sound? Foreword by Robert S. Lynd. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1945. 215 pages. Tables, charts. Price $2.50.
GREAT BRITAIN. MINISTRY OF EDUCA- TION. Community centres. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1944. 40 pages. IIIus., plans, tables. Price 9d.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BUREAU FOR RESEARCH IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. Comparative status of 83 cities and towns in the Boston metropolitan dis- trict, 1944. . . [Cambridge, Mass.], The Bureau, Dec. 1944. 35 pages. Litho- printed. Maps, tables, charts. (No. 12.) Price 75 cents.
HILLHOUSE, A. M., and CARL H. CHAT- TERS. Tax-reverted properties in urban
areas. Chicago, Public Administration Service, 1942. 183 pages. Map, plan, table, chart. Price $1.75.
KENNEDY, G. DONALD. The role of the federal government in highway develop- ment; an analysis of needs and pro- posals for post-war action. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 87 pages. Tables. (U. S. Congress. 78th. 2d Ses- sion.)
MUMFORD, LEWIS. City development; studies in disintegration and renewal. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1945. 248 pages. Price $2.00.
ROSENMAN, DOROTHY. A million homes a year. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1945. 333 pages. IIIus., map, plans, tables, charts. Price $3.50.
SHARP, THOMAS. Cathedral city: a plan for Durham. London, published for the Durham City Council by the Architec- tural Press, 1944. 98 pages. IIIus., maps (part folded), plans (part folded), tables. Price 5s.
SPERRY GYROSCOPE Co., INC., and AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME. THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. The Sperry memorial competition, 1945. [New York], The authors, 1945. 29 pages. Includes statements on memorials.
THOMPSON, F. LONGSTRETH. Merseyside plan, 1944. A report prepared in con- sultation with a Technical Committee of the Merseyside Advisory Joint Plan- ning Committee at the request of the Minister of Town and Country Plan- ning. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1945. 72 pages. Maps (one folded and colored), tables, charts. Price 7s. 6d.
U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. DIVISION OF CONSTRUCTION AND PUB- LIC EMPLOYMENT. The construction industry in the United States. Wash- ington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 149 pages. Tables, charts. (Bulletin no. 786.) Price 20 cents.
U. S. NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY. OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL. Comparative analysis of the principal provisions of the state urban redevelop- ment corporations laws. [Washington], The Agency, June 1, 1944. 27 pages. Mimeographed.
. . The tools of the
National Housing Agency and how they work. A detailed analysis of the statu- tory framework for housing, together with a description of the statutes in operation and the results achieved and attainable under them. [Washington], The Agency, June 1, 1944. 157 pages. Mimeographed. Charts, tables.
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Planning and Civic Comment
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
CONTENTS
Page
Then and Now 1
The Problem of Changeover Unemployment 2
Housing and the Urban Economy ... 7
Washington's Planning and Housing Needs 12
Report and Bill on Housing and Urban Redevelopment . . .17
*J I Strictly Personal 19
Portland, Oregon Votes Down Civic Center 21
Britain's Plans for the Smaller Town 26
Mayor's Anti-Slum Commission in Saint Louis 29
A Postwar Transportation Survey 31
Parks— Pictorial Section 33
State Park Notes 49
Town Planning in Canada 52
MVA— Pros and Cons 53
Fall Conference on City and Regional Planning 58
Commentaries 59
Ralph Budd on Railroads 69
Rail Leaders Plan for Peacetime Service 71
In Memoriam 72
Robert Sterling Yard
Charles Gordon
Jacob L. Babler
Charles L. Gable
Sierra Club Directors Meet 75
Book Reviews 76
Recent Publications . 79
JULY 1945
THIRD QU AR PER — JULY- AUGUST - SEPTEMBER
PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
Published Quarterly
Successor to: City Planning, Civic Comment, State Recreation
rgan of: American Planning and Civic National Conference on State Parks
Official Organ of: American Planning and Civic Association,
St
SCOPE: National, State, Regional and City Planning; Land and Water Uses;
Conservation of National Resources; National, State and Local Parks,
Highways and Roadsides. AIM: To create a better physical environment which will conserve and develop
the health, happiness and culture oj the American people.
EDITORIAL BOARD
HARLEAN JAMES FLAVEL SHURTLEFF CHARLES G. SAUERS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
FREDERICK J. ADAMS HENRY V. HUB BARD
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT JOHN IHLDER
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW GEORGE INGALLS
EDWARD M. BASSETT RAYMOND F. LEONARD
RICHARD E. BISHOP THOMAS H. MACDONALD
RUSSELL V. BLACK ROBERTS MANN
PAUL V. BROWN J. HORACE MCFARLAND
STRUTHERS BURT HENRY T. MC!NTOSH
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM KATHERINE MCNAMARA
GEORGE L. COLLINS HAROLD MERRILL
MARSHALL N. DANA * MARVIN C. NICHOLS
S. R. DEBOER JOHN NOLEN, JR.
EARLE S. DRAPER F. A. PITKIN
NEWTON B. DRURY HUGH R. POMEROY
CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2o ISABELLE F. STORY
L. C. GRAY L. DEMING TILTON
S. HERBERT HARE BEN H. THOMPSON
ELISABETH M. HERLIHY TOM WALLACE CONRAD L. WIRTH
MANAGING EDITOR
DORA A. PADGETT
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Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at Harrisburg, Pa.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION OFFICE, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFaHand Company, Harris- burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
Vol. 1
July, 1945
No. 3
Then and Now
We have long discussed and pre- pared for this postwar period which is now upon us. After World War I we at first relied mainly on the spontaneous combustion of a busi- ness boom. In the second decade, when the Depression cast its shadow over our false prosperity, we relied mainly on public works, needed and unneeded, to extend utterly inadequate employment to the idle millions. We believed that we had discovered a sure cure for unem- ployment when we first thought of public works to take up the slack. But what happened in the 1930's? With all our talk, the volume of public works, Federal, state and local, was less than in the 1920's. The only innovation was that the Federal Government supplied most of the cash. And with private busi- ness at low ebb, we could never supply enough jobs.
How does the postwar period we now face differ from the twenty- three years following World War I? In the first place we have a con- scious, organized effort on the part of private enterprise to engage in a sound business program. The C.E.D. committees which exist in most urban districts have worked hard to diagnose each local situation. The statement of the Research Com- mittee of the C.E.D., headed by Ralph Flanders, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, sets forth an eight-point program for
the reconversion period. A sum- mary of this statement follows.
The C.E.D. makes no pretense that private enterprise can manage this difficult transition alone. The leaders recognize that there are certain Federal responsibilities and certain aids which can be extended by States and local governments. But they are willing, and they be- lieve, able, to do a great deal for themselves. They do recognize that their best may not be enough to meet the modern demand for full employment and they urge the preparation of an adequate shelf of needed public works to be ready as needed.
In this decade of the forties we have one marked difference from the sad thirties. According to Blair & Co., a study of the 91 cities of over 100,000 inhabitants shows that these cities have decreased their debt by 18.3 percent, with cities from 100,- 000 to 1,000,000 averaging decreases of 24 to 31 percent. At the same time assessed values in 1944 are nearly five percent above the 1935 level. Many cities and States have accumulated funds for postwar pub- lic works and most of them are in a better financial position than they were in the thirties. Governors and Mayors have vied with each other in setting up Postwar Planning Committees. Also, FWA is doing its best to stimulate planning of public works by Federal advances
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out of the $17,500,000 appropriated by Congress.
The Federal-Aid Public Roads program, first authorized in 1916, barely preceded World War I. Its early momentum was not reached until well after the War. By the time of the entry of the United States into World War II, public roads construction constituted a major enterprise in this country. With the accumulated needs after four years of neglect, and with the extension of Federal Aid to urban districts under the Public Roads Act of 1944, we shall have a far larger program for highway construction in value and service than after World War I.
All in all, it was a vastly different situation in the Depression when we tried to pour a dwindling volume of public works into an almost empty pail (we called it priming the pump then) from that in 1945 with private enterprise intensively organized to produce a large volume of business and the public works programs ready to be poured in on top as the cream to fill the pail. The trick, of course, will be to avoid a boom bag of wild spending which will blow up in our faces. There are, indeed, a great
many hitches which may occur to defeat our program of full employ- ment. The C.E.D. does not promise the impossible. At best private enterprise cannot supply all the employment all the time.
In the field of public works, the public demand for good roads will no doubt utilize the full quota of Federal Aid available annually, but there will be the many shelves of plans for other public works which can be put into construction or not as needed in addition to the un- doubtedly great volume of private construction scheduled for the im- mediate postwar years.
We have two great problems ahead of us: one, to see that all construction — public and private — conforms to official local plans, and, two, to so control our timing, with- out too much competition for labor at any one time, that employment is kept high, with its steadying lever of buying power to absorb its share of goods and services produced in this U.S.A.
And that is the essence of good planning — knowing in advance what you are going to do and finding out the best time to do it.
The Problem of Changeover Unemployment
Summary of a Statement on National Policy by the Research Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Ralph E. Flanders, Chairman of the Research Committee of the Committee for Economic Develop- ment, presents the views and recom- mendations of the C. E. D. Re- search Committee of businessmen.
During the two or three years of the transition period it is probable
that 25 million or more soldiers and war workers will have to change jobs. With intelligent handling plus speedy industrial reconversion and expansion, the peak volume of changeover unemployment can be kept within controllable limits.
Planning and Civic Comment
Specific recommendations are:
1. Rapid demobilization of soldiers and war workers and opposition to any national policy of arbitrary reductions in the prewar normal work week made solely for the pur- pose of sharing employment, which is essentially a share-tbe-unemploy- ment plan which places the chief burden of unemployment on the workers and tends to restrict de- sirable labor mobility. We do not want to freeze unemployment into a short work week.
2. Businessmen can make a major contribution in speeding the transfer of soldiers and war workers to peace- time jobs by reconverting and ex- panding as rapidly as possible, thereby increasing the production and distribution of peacetime goods and services and creating productive jobs. Through proper timing they can do much to provide additional jobs during the early transition months and to lessen the fear of prolonged unemployment. En- couraged by the more than 2900 local C.E.D. community committees and by other organizations, many business men have already de- veloped bold pre-reconversion plans for the changeover to civilian pro- duction, for starting new business and expanding existing business. More should do so. By having planned in advance and by acting promptly and aggressively now, they can reduce the danger of in- flation by supplying the goods needed to relieve wartime shortages. By properly timing their actions businessmen may make a difference of several million jobs during the worst of the changeover period. Maintenance, repairs and improve-
ments can be concentrated in these early reconversion months, when unemployment may be large. In-so- far as practicable, regular staffs should be used on plant reconversion work. Personnel plans, if not already completed, should be made now in consultation with workers so that unavoidable layoffs are made fairly, and reabsorption and retraining of workers can proceed efficiently and rapidly. When possible, employees should be notified at time of layoff whether and when they will be rehired. As a means of shortening such layoffs and accelerating recon- version to civilian production, all war contractors should take all possible steps to expedite the settle- ment of terminated war contracts.
3. Enactment of special measures to handle veterans1 reemployment are necessary if all returning service- men are to be assured employment opportunities at least equal to those contemplated in the present legis- lation enacted for their benefit. The Committee believes that veterans are entitled to postwar job con- sideration sufficient to offset em- ployment disadvantages growing out of the period of service spent in the defense of their country. Business, labor and government must all work cooperatively to help handi- capped veterans restore themselves to a useful self-sustaining place in the society which they have fought to preserve. Many veterans will have entered the armed services directly from school or will have no reemployment rights under the law for other reasons. As a general ob- jective, such veterans should re- ceive whatever consideration is nec- essary to insure against their being
Planning and Civic Comment
penalized because they entered the armed services rather than com- merce or industry.
The Federal Government should take more positive action to aid communities in the development of local programs for veterans, includ- ing the creation of effective local machinery to cope realistically with all types of veterans' requirements with special attention to the vet- eran's basic need of a job. There should be special provisions for counselling, training, and placement of handicapped veterans. There should be local joint committees to coordinate and direct the efforts of employers, labor organizations, local and national government agencies, representatives of the returned vet- erans themselves, and other groups. The communities, acting in coopera- tion with employers should plan now for more jobs — not alone for veterans but for their entire working force after the war. Such planning is a logical community effort. It cannot be done alone by industry, commerce, agriculture, nor by busi- ness, labor or any other separate group.
4. Public Employment Services need strengthening. Only when the peak of interstate movement has passed should the administration of the Federal Employment Services be returned to the States and then in addition to more efficient staffs, the Services should be supplemented by state and local advisory com- mittees, representing citizens, busi- ness and labor interests. Working closely with the operating staff, these committees should see that the employment offices provide efficient service to unemployment
compensation agencies, are keyed to meet local employment needs and are effectively operated. They must be equipped to provide a compre- hensive job information and occupa- tional counselling service and an adequate system for bringing to- gether workers and jobs across state lines. A properly supervised and limited program of transportation grants to enable workers and their families to move from surplus labor areas to good employment areas would assist importantly to prevent the development of a new crop of stranded communities.
5. To provide better protection for the jobless during the transition, the scale and duration of unemployment compensation benefits provided by a considerable number of the States should be increased, coverage should be broadened, and undue restrictions on the payment of benefits removed. The Committee recommends that the States move promptly to increase the scale and duration of benefits to conform to desirable standards such as those recommended by Richard A. Lester — at least $20 for a flat duration of 26 weeks; or by the Council of State Governments — $20 weekly maximum for a maximum period of 26 weeks; or possibly maximum benefits of not less than $25 a week for a uniform period of 26 weeks, as recommended by President Truman. The time be- tween loss of job and beginning of benefit payments — the waiting pe- riod— should also be reduced to one week in States which now require a longer period. State unemployment compensation reserves now total nearly 7 billion dollars and appear to be ample in nearly all States to
Planning and Civic Comment
finance the proposed increases in benefits. The States should also consider revision of existing dis- qualification provisions, particularly those which affect the mobility of labor. It is recommended that the coverage of state unemployment compensation acts be broadened at once to include Federal civilian employees, maritime workers, and workers in establishments employing fewer than eight persons, — totaling nearly 6 million workers. The Federal Government should reim- burse the States for benefits drawn by its former employees on the basis of their previous Federal earnings and the benefit formula of the State. 6. There should be an adequate reserve oj needed public works proj- ects. It now appears probable that the postwar demand for construc- tion, both public and private, will for a time strain the available re- sources of the construction industry. In this field the problem of the early transition years may be one of channeling the available total of manpower, materials and equipment to urgently needed projects and restraining insistent bidding for limited resources and facilities which would tend to generate inflation. Governments should avoid com- peting with private industry during this period. If private demand is adequate, governments should post- pone all but urgently needed public construction projects. Materials and equipment should be made avail- able to the construction industry as rapidly as possible, to facilitate rapid industrial reconversion and expan- sion and to help meet the demand for housing. In case the expected private demand does not material-
ize, however, governments should be ready to expand promptly the volume of public construction. To be prepared for this eventuality: Federal, state and local governments should expedite the preparation of an adequate reserve shelf of needed public works, to be ready when, as and if required to supplement pri- vate construction activity and to provide additional employment. Pub- lic work can only supplement other unemployment measures. It can- not replace them. Such projects cannot provide useful jobs quickly for any very large number of tran- sition unemployed, even if planned in advance and constructed at the maximum rate consistent with reasonable efficiency. It would be unwise to place heavy reliance on public works for potential stranded areas; it is better to assist workers to leave the area than to hold them in over-populated communities by means of public employment. Em- ployees on public work projects should be hired on the basis of efficiency and paid prevailing wages. State and local reserve shelf planning had been proceeding too slowly to provide an adequate volume of projects by the time they may be needed. In order to expedite the planning of such projects the Federal Government has appro- priated $17,500,000 to be advanced to the States and localities for proj- ect planning only, these advances to be repaid when and if construc- tion of the project is undertaken. The Committee recommends that additional appropriations be made when and as needed to further en- courage advance planning of needed public construction. The Federal
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Government should also sharply expand its own public works plan- ning activities at once. In view of the improved financial position of state and local governments and the vast increases in Federal debt and expenditures, Federal grants for the construction of state and local projects are not recommended to meet changeover unemployment.
7. Employers should expand and adapt in-plant training activities to assist the rapid readjustment of workers to peacetime jobs. Extension of this type of training is especially necessary in non-manufacturing lines which will experience marked ex- pansion. The Committee considered the possibility of developing emer- gency vocational education pro- grams for the transition period. It believes that hastily constructed emergency training programs might do more harm than good. However, the Committee favors the extension and adaptation of existing, soundly conceived programs of public voca- tional education, using traditional Federal aid, to assist workers to prepare themselves for productive postwar jobs. The educational and training program for veterans pro- vided by the G.I. Act appears to be generally adequate. Discharged ser- vicemen should be encouraged to take advantage of the educational opportunities provided. The Com- mittee suggests that the provisions of the Act be extended to veterans over 25 years of age, many of whom are now excluded.
8. Total liquid savings of in- dividuals in the form of currency,
demand and time deposits, and Federal Government securities in- creased by nearly 70 billion dollars during the three-year period 1942- 1944. A large share of the total has been accumulated by persons with medium-sized incomes, but the available evidence suggests that savings are very unevenly distri- buted and that large numbers of the lower paid workers have saved little or nothing. Workers' savings con- stitute an important resource for many families in case of unemploy- ment, but it is clear that they do not provide adequate overall protection against unemployment. The States are urged to reexamine their present public assistance programs without delay, and, where these are not already adequate, to increase the scale of benefits, provide coverage for all needy persons, and remove residence and settlement requirements which will impede postwar labor mobility. To encourage the States to liberalize their systems, especially to meet the transition problems of depressed war boom areas and to avoid ar- bitrary restrictions on mobility, the Federal Government should provide aid to the States for general assis- tance. This is in accord with the recommendations of the Council of State Governments.
Under the urgent pressures of war this Nation demonstrated great power to produce. This Committee believes that, retaining individual freedom of action and using the methods of democracy, we can or- ganize effectively for peace as well.
Housing and the Urban Economy*
By JOHN IHLDER, Executive Officer National Capital Housing Authority
In the early days of modern city planning — then known as the "city beautiful movement," I participated in a meeting of enthusiasts whose enthusiasm was chilled by a man who had been invited in the hope that he might be converted. He asked, "Who is going to pay for it?" We did not know the answer so we did not like the question. The Cleveland Civic Center — which even today is not completed, was our greatest achievement. We were all set to get more civic centers. We got some; Des Moines for example. But after all, civic centers alone do not make a city-beautiful — as we realized when the Burnham vision of a glorious San Francisco petered down to a civic center. For San Francisco repeated trie practical question, "Who's going to pay for it?" The business men and tax- payers of San Francisco said they were not.
So some of us, who always had been restive under the "city beauti- ful" allegation, told the world that what we really desired was a "city practical." Personally I did a very serious job of sublimating that text, using Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.'s story of the clipper ship, a ship built by tobacco-spitting, rough- handed sons of toil whose one pur- pose was to build a vessel that would carry the most cargo fastest. The result, said Mr. Olmsted, was that they produced the most beau- tiful ship that ever sailed the seas.
*DeIivered before the local chapter of the National Association of Housing Officials, Wash- ington, D. C., June 14, 1945.
So, I argued, ugliness is evidence of only partial practicality.
I preached that doctrine, in which I still believe, from one end of the country to the other, until Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. questioned it tactfully and kindly, partly out of consideration for his father, perhaps partly out of consideration for me, and until George Ford once asked me "What about the railroad water tank?" Not being a technician I could not tell him how to improve the practicality of railroad water tanks so they would, incidentally, become beautiful. Only recently have I found the answer. It is to do away with the water tanks by sub- stituting electric for steam loco- motives. During all the intervening years I lived on faith, confident that I must be right even if I couldn't prove it.
Again in my youth, I became a disciple of an inspiring teacher, Simon Patton, who told an incredu- lous world that America had wealth enough to abolish poverty. That was during those glorious first fourteen years of this century, the years just before we shot away a large part of our wealth. During the succeeding three or four years we demonstrated that he was right, we had the wealth. But it took us a quarter of a century to learn how to apply our knowledge. And then we decided again to shoot our wealth away instead of using it to abolish poverty. In a year or two from now we shall have another chance to apply what Patton knew, plus cer-
Planning and Civic Comment
tain things war has taught us about the mobilization of our wealth.
But this new knowledge of ours is supplemental, not in contradiction to ancient knowledge. One cannot continuously spend wealth unless he has it, and the spending of wealth leads to bankruptcy unless there are adequate economic returns. A poor community cannot support a high standard of living, cannot have good housing, cannot have a satis- factory social organization, cannot build a gratifying physical structure. Even a moderately well-to-do com- munity may find that ideas which seem good at the time, will not work out if they cost too much or are ex- travagantly applied. Bankruptcy never proves anything except fail- ure.
So we have to consider ways and means. These ways and means may be new-style, may be of a kind that would have driven an old-style thrifty Scotsman crazy. But new- style or old-style they must have the character of an investment; and essential to an investment is its servicing.
Having established these truths by merely stating them, there arise specific questions as to how we shall apply them in order to assure good housing in our urban economy.
We begin by assuming that our urban community has life, vitality, a reason for being and a future. Otherwise there is no use talking about it. But we also assume that it is a very imperfect community. Otherwise it would not be interest- ing to us. We also assume that it does not have enough ready cash to make immediately practicable the carrying out of our desires. In other
words we are not talking about Williamsburg with a beneficent fairy godfather, though Williams- burg was on the way to teach us something about the urban economy when gasoline rationing checked the demonstration, or gave it another slant. We are talking about the common or garden variety of com- munity which has to do most of its lifting by means of its own boot- straps.
But while lacking sufficient ready cash, our imperfect community with its slums and blighted areas; with one-third of its people ill-housed, ill-fed, ill-clothed, must have poten- tial wealth, wealth of the kind that our old-time captains of industry had in mind when they coined the phrase that it is necessary to spend money in order to make money. They liked that phrase very much until the government learned it.
So, having at hand an imperfect and therefore interesting urban com- munity, with potential wealth but not enough cash in hand to do all we wish, what are we going to do about its housing? Certainly we are not going to set as our objective any mere betterment. "Better housing" we shall strike from our bright lexi- con along with "worthy poor." They express an obsolete kind of thinking, which, as Theodore Roose- velt said, led to doing well feebly. Nothing less than good housing will satisfy. For experience has taught us that in peace as in war anything Jess than good is an extravagance, is wasteful of human lives and is likely to cause defeat.
But, having accepted this truth without debate, as we have the in- troductory truths, how are we going
Planning and Civic Comment
to pay for good housing? It is all very well to tell a poor man that one ten-dollar pair of shoes will out- last four three-dollar pairs; his argument is that he has the three dollars. A realistic illustration of our problem was given in the Report of the Temporary Program Com- mittee of this Chapter:
Nearly 68 percent of the 1940 labor force in the city of Pittsburgh earned less than $1,200 a year; close to 80 percent earned less than $1,600 in that same year.
Another illustration was given in a recent newspaper editorial criticiz- ing the National Capital Housing Authority for, as it erroneously said, retaining $3,000 families in public housing. It also went to the 1940 census and stated that there were only 21,640 District family groups in the wage-salary category earning $3,000 or more, compared with 71,720 families under $3,000. As- suming the accuracy of these figures, what are we going to do to provide good — not merely "decent" housing for all the people of Pittsburgh and the District of Columbia? For "decent" housing is an extravagance analogous to that of temporary housing but more lasting in its evil effects. The alley dwellings of Wash- ington, the back-to-back houses of Philadelphia, the wooden three- deckers of New England, the six- story walk-up tenements of New York all are products of the short- sighted attempt to build decent housing for the poor, building in ac- cordance with their poverty. Today we are reversing; having learned the cost of slums we shall build good housing and then find ways and means of making it available.
Of course that leads to an attempt
to define good housing. No one plan and specifications wi.I be good for a family living on the Arctic coast of Alaska and for another family living in the So omon Islands. Each com- munity must set its own standards. But a general statement has guid- ance value; i.e. standards must be high enough for the dwelling and the neighborhood to hold a stable popu- lation. Of course this is like all generalizations, subject to qualifica- tion and exception. One of our causes for disquiet is the increasing stability of our slum populations. But, like other generalizations, it is useful in giving a sense of direction.
Then comes the question whether the community can afford good housing. On the face of the Pitts- burgh and Washington statistics it might be questioned whether those cities — and they are illustrative, not exceptional, can afford good housing. What kind of house will a $1,200 income in Pittsburgh or a $1,304 (average) income in the District of Columbia support? By rule of thumb that means $25 or $27 a month rent. The private builders in the District of Columbia promise nothing under $35 and they actually charge $40 to $50 to $60 for dwell- ings that are destined to become the slums of the future. So, evidently, a considerable part of the urban popu- lation could not at 1940 wage levels pay for 1945 dwellings.
Admittedly the statistics have us at a disadvantage because earnings as well as building costs have gone up since 1940. But for 100 years, 200 years, building costs have al- ways advanced as fast as wages and have managed to keep about a generation ahead of wages. So the
Planning and Civic Comment
son of today's workman may be able to afford today's house, but his father, who needs today's house, can not afford it.
Evidently then current wage lev- els will not finance current good housing. That used to be considered a final answer and the result was alley dwellings, back-to-back houses, and six-story walk-ups. Today we go farther for our answer and the result, we hope and believe, will be good housing. In today's answer are two factors that preceding gen- erations did not consider; the cost of slums and of slum populations; the increased value of good housing properties and of a stronger, more efficient population. Then comes the question whether spending money to do away with costly evils and to promote good conditions will be a sound economic investment. If that is answered in the affirmative, then come questions of sound policy and practice in the spending.
We shall assume that the answer to the first question is in the affirma- tive. But in giving that answer we shall, of course, bear in mind that our urban community is a live, virile community with a reason for being and with a future. If not, it is not worth talking about, though applica- tion of the remedy designed for a live community may have the neg- atively good effect of hastening the demise of a dying community. That remedy is to permit the erection of good dwellings only and to compel the demolition of sub-standard dwel- lings in accordance with a program tha$ will provide good housing for the slum population within a stated number of years. Then come questions of policy
and practice in spending. The basic policy is to promote the productivity and thereby the earning capacity of an increasing proportion of the population. In this good housing has a part, but only a part. Yet that part is important and it should be so administered that it will con- tribute to the whole of which it is part.
One of the most significant con- tributions of good housing is its contribution to a demonstration of the cost of living. Wages and relief should be based upon this cost of living. Low wages, inadequate re- lief have been based in large part upon the rents of sub-standard housing. This has not meant a lowered cost to the community, but only a different allocation of costs; less for rent but more for disease, vice and crime. Perhaps the total of these costs has not been, in terms of direct expenditure, greater than the direct cost of good housing — conclusive data is not available. But added to that total are other costs in terms of man-days lost to production and inefficiency in production. Again it may be that the community as a whole is too poor to maintain a healthy and efficient population. So, because of community poverty it may be necessary for some of its people to live miserably. Then comes the question whether that community can be made self-sup- porting by outside aid, or whether it should die quickly. An affirmative answer on outside aid would be based upon the prospect of develop- ing potential wealth.
Having determined that our ur- ban community has enough wealth actually or potentially to support
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good housing for all its people, the next question is as to program , how many dwellings, what types of dwell- ings (one- family, detached, twin, group or row; and multiple dwell- ings) and at what cost ranges. As to cost ranges there has been a change of opinion within recent years. As before stated we have come to recognize that alley dwell- ings, back-to-back houses and wood- en three-deckers are economically unsound however profitable they may have been to their builders. So we are beginning to recognize that some of today's profit producers, the two-flat, four-flat and six-flat dwellings are economically unsound. But we have scarcely dared to ques- tion the soundness of the million- aire's right to do what he will with his money even when it leaves his city with the problem of a Kitten- house Square or a Massachusetts Avenue. Fortunately, however, the millionaire himself has begun to question it, so as in the matter of urban land speculation from which much of the zip has departed, it will be comparatively easy to deal with when we come to it. For the time being, while we are clarifying our ideas, we may leave the first stages of solution to the somewhat auto- matic workings of the so-called law of supply and demand — the supply of household servants being a factor that can not be ignored.
Leaving then not only the million- aires, but also the moderately wealthy, the comfortably circum- stanced and even the recently segre- gated "middle market group," to the beneficent action of supply and effective demand, serviced by risk capital and individual initiative, we
come to those whose demand is not effective though their need is great.
We have decided that they are to have good dwellings even if they can not pay profit-producing rents or an analogous purchase price. We have decided this because we have de- cided that either the community can afford to make up any deficit, or the community should die.
If the community is to make up housing deficits it will desire two things: 1. That the deficits be as small as possible. 2. That the houses be as good as possible. This means that the rents shall pay for houses, not for private profits. This means that housing which does not yield profits must be public housing. Private housing is for all those who can afford to pay private profits on good housing.
By this means we shall leave private enterprise free to serve those whom it can afford to serve well, and by this means we shall conserve the community's wealth by using it only to the extent needed to serve the community's need. By this means we shall make it possible for the increasingly healthy and efficient population to progress economically and to graduate from public to private housing.
Theoretically this would result in the ultimate extinction of public housing. Practically, however, that extinction is of a rather distant future for we may with some con- fidence forecast that private rents and sales prices will tend to rise with increasing buying power — when Henry Ford many years ago in- creased wages his employees stayed in the same houses but paid higher rents.
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But perhaps we need not worry about that, provided there are enough good houses for the low-in- come part of the population. If an increasing proportion of the popula- tion can afford increasingly good dwellings even at increasingly higher rents or purchase prices, we shall assume that the community's wealth has increased. Therefore it will be able to provide non-profit housing for families left behind by private enterprise.
Of course there are other things that should be considered in a dis- cussion of housing and the urban economy. For example, is it, in the long run, economy to combine one- family dwellings and multi-family dwellings in a single development? Owners of one-family houses fear that nearby multi-family houses af- fect their values adversely. Zoning regulations reflect this fear but many developers scoff at it. Again,
should residential real estate be taxed enough to pay for all the municipal services it requires, or should it be subsidized by taxes on business property? It is said that in a medium sized community a house should be assessed for at least $5,000 if it is to pay its share of the cost of schools, police, fire protection, health services, sewers, etc., etc. Of more recent interest is the matter of urban redevelopment which has economic implications of great importance. There are persons who believe the slums of a city can be reclaimed with- out ultimate cost to the taxpayer, but most of the present day legis- lative proposals are based upon an assumption that redevelopment of spoiled urban areas will be very ex- pensive and that the taxpayer must bear the expense. But each of these items requires extended discussion if it is to be more than mentioned.
Washington's Planning and Housing Needs'
By Hon. Allen J. Ellender, U. S. Senator from Louisiana
In the quality of its physical plant, Washington should be the first city in America and the jewel city of all the world. The planning and building of Washington up to the goal that we set will require con- certed effort. Taxpayers, builders, financial institutions, workers, Gov- ernment employees, and all those interested in every aspect of health and human welfare, will need to join forces. But the task is so huge that we must divide it into parts.
*Condensed from an address before the Citizens Council for Community Planning, Washington, June 15, 1945. The American Planning and Civic Association is a member of the Council.
We must analyze it, in order that we may do first things first. Let us make a brief analysis and see where it leads.
The surface of a city is covered with streets, parks, public buildings, houses, schools, churches, business districts, hospitals, and other com- munity facilities.
The fundamental street and park pattern of Washington as laid out is satisfactory, except for the alleys, which are tied in with the question of housing redevelopment.
Our public building program need give us no concern. It does involve
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the relationship between where people work and where they live, and what recreational facilities they have near where they live. This again ties directly with housing.
Since Washington is not an in- dustrial city, we certainly cannot place the treatment of its business districts first on the list of our press- ing problems.
This leads us to consideration of hospitals, schools, community facil- ities and housing.
I think that these other items which I have just enumerated are, in large measure, a derivative of housing conditions. The slums of Washington, as elsewhere, con- tribute more than their share toward disease and delinquency. According to one survey, 13>2 percent of the population here lived under housing conditions four times as crowded as the average for the District as a whole. In one year, this 13/4 per- cent of the population supplies more than 36 percent of the persons arrested for other than traffic viola- tions; more than 27 percent of those arrested under seventeen years of age; more than 20 percent of the delinquent children committed to institutions or placed on probation; and more than 25 percent of the deaths from tuberculosis.
Studies like these have convinced me that the improvement of housing conditions is the foundation for the improvement of a city's social wel- fare, improvement of its physical planning, and improvement of its economic strength. When we have a plan for redeveloping all the resi- dential areas of Washington into decent living accommodations, at costs which the people can afford to
pay, and with adequate open spaces, we shall be well on our way to the kind of Washington which is now only a dream. Once we determine to do this housing job, the related problems of streets and community facilities will necessarily be attacked simultaneously. If we begin with housing we cannot stop short of the whole job. That is why I favor be- ginning with housing.
Together with Senator Wagner, I am now working on a postwar housing bill. This legislation will establish a consistent and compre- hensive national housing policy. It will define the outlines of a housing goal for this Nation. It will provide tools for reaching this goal.
I want to summarize the guiding principles of this proposed legisla- tion, and then apply these principles to the situation here in Washington.
Principle No. 1 is that we cannot do much about housing until we know all the facts relating to the housing need. These facts should be locally determined by the people concerned. No community should expect to receive aid from the Fed- eral Government until it presents a full catalogue of its needs, devel- oped, advocated, and proposed through local initiative.
This means that all local groups interested in housing must find some way of cooperating with each other and with one or more local public bodies in order that the whole local need for adequate housing may be assembled and fitted into a com- plete picture.
Unfortunately, there are only a few communities where this is now taking place. Here in Washington the various local groups are spend-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ing too much of their energies in sniping at and contending with one another. With emotion rather than facts, they are arguing about what part of the job should be done by private enterprise and what part by public housing. They are even fiercely arguing about which partic- ular public agency should be en- trusted with the public part of the job.
I tell you very frankly that Con- gress cannot solve this problem. The communities must solve it for themselves. They must develop enough local leadership, abundant good will, and sufficient common understanding to take this first step themselves. When this first step is taken, a community will be in pos- session of a long-term housing plan — a 10-, 15-, or 20-year plan — to clear up all its slums and provide decent housing for all its people. This blue print must be in accord with the best master plan that can be devised for the redevelopment of the city as a whole.
Now, after this plan is on paper, what should be done about it?
This brings us to principle No. 2. With regard to housing, private enterprise should be aided and en- couraged to take on the whole job. It should be given a reasonable op- portunity to carry out the master plan of housing. This, I believe, is clearly the predominant sentiment among members of the Congress. It is doubtless the prevailing view of the people throughout our country. But there are certain obstacles which stand in the way of private enterprise. I have become abso- lutely convinced that the real ene- mies of private enterprise here in
the District of Columbia are not those who believe in public housing, for some public housing is necessary. The real enemies of private enter- prise here in the District are a small minority of the misinformed, selfish, self-appointed spokesmen for private enterprise. They muddy up the waters by making absurd claims as to what they can do — they assume a dog-in-the-manger attitude toward that part of the job that they have never done and cannot possibly do under present conditions. If we take their advice, Washington will have many more slums in 1955 than it has now. And that would discredit private enterprise in a way that I, as a true friend of private enterprise, do not want to see it discredited.
To illustrate, let us look squarely at the facts, here in Washington.
In 1940, almost 20 percent of the houses in the Washington metro- politan district were definitely sub- standard. Likewise about the same percentage of all residential areas in this city was covered with substand- ard housing. That so high a propor- tion of the people in the Capital of the wealthiest Nation on earth should be living under these condi- tions is nothing less than a national disgrace.
In the final analysis, the only way to remedy this appalling situation is to make good housing available, at costs which those now suffering from bad housing can afford to pay. Now, what can people aff oid to pay? Just before the war, here in Washington, about 40 percent of the families had incomes above $2,500 a year, and roughly speaking could afford to pay more than $40 a month for their housing — whether as owners or rent-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ers. Almost 30 percent of the fami- lies had incomes below $1,500 a year, which required that they ob- tain housing for less than $25 a month, or in any event less than $30 a month. More than 14 percent of the families, or about one-seventh of the total, had incomes of less than $1,000 a year, and could afford to pay less than $20 a month for their housing.
These figures are truly shocking. But they are facts. Looking forward to high incomes and greater prosper- ity after the war, there would be some shift upward in all these fix- tures. But these shifts, while affect- ing magnitudes, would not change the nature of the problem.
Now let us contrast these income figures with the cost of new housing actually built in the Washington area during the five years preceding the war. About 62 percent of this new housing was made available at a cost or rental basis of more than $50 a month. In contrast, only 6.6 percent of this new housing was made available for the 30 percent of the families who could afford to pay less than $30 per month. And only 3 percent of the new housing was made available for the more than 14 percent of the families that could afford to pay less than $20 per month.
We all know the stock theoretical answer to these alarming disparities. We are told that the families of middle-income and low-income groups can get plenty of satisfactory second-hand housing, handed down from the good housing built for higher income groups. The only trouble with this theory is that it was being tried even before the
Washington Monument was built, and it has failed dismally. The measure of the failure can be ob- tained by taking a walk or driving a car from one end of the District to the other. If anyone is satisfied with the spectacle, that person, and that person alone, will be satisfied with the theory.
The facts simply do not square with the theory. The housing, in which tens of thousands of Wash- ington families are living, is not good housing handed down. It is bad housing. And for that bad housing they are paying more rent than they can afford. The median rent in the substandard housing in the District of Columbia before the war was al- most $25 a month. This rent was far above the rent-paying capacity of most of the families living in the bad housing. The obvious result has been terrific overcrowding. Another result has been inadequate diet and poor medical care, caused in part by too large a share of the family budget going for housing.
This situation is much worse in Washington than in other parts of the country. According to one esti- mate, less than one-fifth of the total supply of existing housing is avail- able under $30 a month, contrasted with 79 percent in New Orleans and 54 percent in Baltimore. The me- dian rents in Washington are much higher than in New York City and almost twice as high as in Richmond.
These economic realities of income and housing costs are at the heart of the problem. Neglect of this problem is indefensible. To expect to solve the problem without getting to its heart is sheer folly.
By all means, I repeat, we must
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Planning and Civic Comment
encourage private enterprise to do as much of this job as it can. But what are the limits of reasonable ex- pectation here in Washington? If private enterprise in the past has been building almost entirely for families who pay more than $40 a month, and mostly for those who pay more than $50, we may en- courage and stimulate private enter- prise in the future to build also for those who pay between $30 and $40, and even for some of those who pay between $20 and $30. But private enterprise cannot be expected, and should not be asked, to provide for those who need housing at less than $20 a month. There is no magic in the world that can accomplish this result, for $20 a month can just about pay interest and principal on the cost of a standard house in this area, without any allowance for taxes, operating costs, insurance, commissions, or profit.
This brings us to principle No. 3 : That we must supplement private enterprise with some public housing if we are to be honest with ourselves in tackling the job.
The two-fold purpose of a postwar housing program, therefore, must be to help private enterprise to expand its market and its volume, and also to resume and continue the public housing program for those who need it and who cannot otherwise obtain decent housing.
The legislation now in preparation would help private enterprise in two ways:
First. There are billions of dollars in financial institutions, such as insurance companies and savings banks, which would flow into hous- ing projects if the safety of such in-
16
vestments could be assured. In return for this safety of investment these institutions would be willing to retire their principal over a period of 50 years rather than 25 years, and to accept an interest rate of about 3 percent rather than the rate of 4 to 5 percent now prevalent for home financing. This would reduce the monthly cost of the housing to the point where middle-income families could afford it. The necessary secur- ity of investment would be achieved through a system of yield insurance, established by the Government, as a logical extension of the FHA system of mutual mortgage insur- ance.
Housing of this investment type would in no sense be competitive with the housing now being supplied through current building and financ- ing methods, because this invest- ment housing would be limited to those income groups which cannot be served adequately under prevail- ing practices. It would enlarge the market rather than divide up the present market.
As a second aid to private enter- prise, the legislation now under study contemplates a system of Federal and local aid for land as- sembly, clearance, and preparation for redevelopment. The blighted central areas of our cities are held at a cost too high to permit their purchase and clearance by private enterprise. To condemn these prop- erties, and thus acquire them at their reuse value, would be unfair to their present owners, including institu- tions in which are invested the sav- ings of the people. On the other hand, through the use of long-term public loans at low rates of interest,
Planning and Civic Comment
and some subsidies, the land can be acquired and cleared by local public bodies, and then made available at its reuse value for redevelopment by private enterprise combined with public improvements.
These forms of aid to private enterprise, plus the continuation of public housing, would provide a sound and workable machinery for building the kind of communities in which Americans should live.
Report and Bill on Housing and Urban Redevelopment
On August 1st, the long-awaited Report to the Special Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Plan- ning by the Subcommittee on Hous- ing and Urban Redevelopment, on Postwar Housing, was issued. The Subcommittee consisted of Senator Taft, Chairman, and Senators Wag- ner, Radcluffe, Buck, Ellender, Chiavez and La Follette, with Miles Colean, Ernest M. Fisher and Meyer Jacobstein serving as consultants.
The excellent Report is clear, well organized and well written. It should be read in its entirety. The Report outlines the housing need, places the responsibility clearly on the local community to determine the volume and location of both public and private housing. The Subcommittee recommends that all action in respect to housing be taken within the framework of the follow- ing principles:
Position oj private initiative. The pro- vision of housing in the United States is declared to be primarily and predom- inantly the function of private invest- ment and finance, private construction, and private ownership and manage- ment. Public intervention must be de- signed and administered so as to stimu- late and supplement, not to impede or supplant, private operations.
It is therefore the policy of the Fed- eral Government to encourage the ex-
pansion of private enterprise so that it will more broadly serve the housing needs of all American families. The use of public funds and the granting of sub- sidies to housing operations shall be so limited as to serve only those needs which cannot or are not likely to be met through the use of the existing stock of housing or of new housing privately provided.
Local responsibility. The determina- tion of housing requirements shall be primarily the responsibility of the com- munity and not of the Federal Govern- ment; and the initiative in making use of aids or benefits of whatever nature provided by the Federal Government shall come from the community without stimulation or direction by the Federal Government.
The Subcommittee recommends the establishment of an independent office in the executive branch of the Federal Government, as a National Housing Agency, with constituent agencies as under the wartime exec- utive order as follows :
1. The Federal Home Loan Bank Administration (successor to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board: the Federal Home Loan Bank Sys- tem, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, the Home Owners* Loan Corporation, and the powers of chartering and supervising Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tions).
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Planning and Civic Comment
2. The Federal Housing Adminis- tration.
3. The Federal Public Housing Administration (successor to the U. S. Housing Authority, and including in addition to the functions of that agency, the powers and functions assigned to the Federal Public Housing Authority by Executive Order 9060).
The Subcommittee also recom- mends that the following agencies also be placed within the jurisdiction of the National Housing Agency:
1. The Federal National Mort- gage Association, now placed in the Federal Loan Agency.
2. The guarantee of home loans under the Servicemen's Readjust- ment Act of 1944, now administered by the Veterans' Administration.
3. Any system of loans or grants that may be established for the clearance of slums as distinguished from the provision of housing.
4. Some additional aids to private initiative.
The Report recommends certain aids to private enterprise and as- sistance to rental housing.
On urban redevelopment, the subcommittee recommends:
1. The National Housing Agency shall be authorized to receive applications for assistance to urban redevelopment from official local bodies, empowered by state and local law to acquire, by negotiation or eminent domain, land in slum or blighted areas, and to sell for cash or terms, or lease for public or private pur- poses, the land so acquired.
2. The Federal Government should render assistance provided the value of the land for redevelopment purposes is not less than half the acquisition cost, exclusive of the value of the buildings demolished, unless the municipality makes up the deficiency and not less
than one-third the acquisition cost, in- clusive of the value of the buildings de- molished, unless the municipality shall make up a difference in excess of such limitation. The municipality should, in addition, contribute an amount at least equal to one-half of the Federal contribution.
• 3. The Federal Government should make annual contributions to the munic- ipality for the purpose of covering the financial charges on the estimated or actual amount (whichever is the lesser) of the difference between the total ac- quisition and demolition costs and re- covery through sale or lease.
4. The Federal Government should make interim loans at a rate not exceed- ing the going Federal rate of interest, to the municipality for the purposes of site acquisition and demolition, such loans to run for the period necessary to dispose of the redeveloped area but in no case to exceed 20 years.
5. It is suggested that Federal annual contributions should be made available at the rate of $4,000,000 for the first year, with an increase of the same amount for four succeeding years. Au- thorization should be made for interim Federal loans of not more than $50,000,- 000 for the first year and $50,000,000 ad- ditional for each succeeding four years.
Under prescribed rules and regu- lations the Subcommittee recom- mends that the authorization for Federal contribution be expanded to permit the construction of a total of 500,000 additional family units over a four-year period. A procedure is set up for the disposal of Federally owned war housing.
The Bill (introduced by Senators Wagner and Ellender) roughly fol- lows the Report, though there are some differences and in many in- stances the bill seems to be much less clear than the Report. The Section on Rural Housing would seem to be a contribution. It is reported that the Bill is being studied in and out of
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Planning and Civic Comment
Congress so that by the time hear- ings are called no doubt most of the obscure points will be cleared up. By that time we hope to have some
suggestions on the planning features of the Bill. For the present we rec- ommend the Report and the Bill to our members for study.
Strictly Personal
Raymond M. Foley was con- firmed the week of July 16th as head of FHA to fill out (until July 1946), the unexpired term of former Com- missioner Abner Ferguson. Mr. Foley was head of the Michigan FHA for 11 years and brings a wealth of experience to his new post.
Blair A. Ross succeeds J. Ross Eakin as Superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mr. Ross has been Superin- tendent of Shiloh National Military Park for the past 4 years. Maj. Eakin retired because of ill health.
George L. Collins, Park Consul- tant, Director's Office, National Park Service, has been detailed to California to serve as Recreation Supervisor for Shasta and Millerton Lakes in Central Valley Reclama- tion Project, California, with head- quarters at Shasta Dam.
Director Newton B. Drury, Na- tional Park Service, has been awarded the Francis K. Hutchinson Medal for the year 1945 by the Gar- den Club of America for distin- guished service in conservation.
than 3 years resigned in July to be- come research analyist for Kaiser Industries. Dr. Nelson's duties in his new job will be tied closely to the Kaiser firm's plan for postwar ex- pansion. He will assemble data on industrial and natural resources in the mountain region and will make other surveys of Colorado condi- tions.
Ralph Budd, president of the Burlington Railroad, was a fea- tured speaker for the Farm Ques- tion Box, a weekly broadcast which has been sponsored on KOA by Western Farm Life of Denver for 20 years, at the anniversary broadcast at Denver, July 9.
Hugh Potter of Houston, Texas, was appointed Construction Co- ordinator by War Mobilization Di- rector, John W. Snyder to head up a newly organized Federal inter-agency committee to speed reconversion in the construction industry.
Bertram Tallamy left the official board of the Niagara Frontier Plan- ning Board early this year and is in Albany as Deputy Superintendent of Public Works for New York.
Dr. El Roy Nelson, State Plan- Glenn Stanton, Portland, Ore., a ning Director of Colorado for more past-president of the Portland Chap-
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Planning and Civic Comment
ter of the AIA, and a member of Theodore Wirth, who came to
Oregon's Board of Architect Ex- aminers, has been elected chairman of the Portland City Planning Commission.
D. K. Este Fisher, Jr., joins Baltimore's new Urban Redevelop- ment Commission, appointed by the Mayor.
Horace M. Albright, President of the APCA, is the author of an article entitled, "The National Park System" in the British magazine, Translantic.
Ben Thompson of the National Park Service, recently assigned to the Regional Director's Office of Region 3 at Santa Fe, N. M., to make boundary studies of national parks and monuments, has been made Assistant Superintendent at Boulder Dam National Recreational Area with headquarters at Boulder City, Nevada.
Gov. R. Gregg Cherry of North Carolina has appointed Irving F. Hall, Raleigh insurance executive, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Collier Cobb, Jr., formerly chairman of the N. C. State Planning Board.
C. A. Bossen, Superintendent of the Board of Park Commissioners of Minneapolis has become Emeritus Superintendent. The Minneapolis Park System (See October, 1943 P&CC) has been developed as one of the most extensive and best man- aged in the country, first under
Minneapolis from Hartford. Mr. Bossen was with Mr. Wirth in Hartford and came to the Minne- apolis Park System as assistant in 1906. When Mr. Wirth became Emeritus in 1935, he was succeeded by Mr. Bossen. One of Mr. Bossen's interesting innovations has been a guaranteed annual wage to the 132 employees in Park Maintenance and Horticultural groups. The hours in summer and winter vary but regu- lar pay goes on in both seasons. Mr. Bossen is succeeded by C. E. Doell, who came to the park board in 1911 when he was a senior in high school, and continued on the job through five years in the College of Engi- neering of the University of Minne- sota. The Park Board approved a budget of $881,600 for 1946 which it is estimated will require the maximum levies authorized by law for each of the funds in the budget.
Frank H. Malley has left the Buffalo City Planning Commission to take over a post as Director of the Planning Commission in Provi- dence, R. I. H. Dall Bossert, formerly director of planning for the Illinois Postwar Planning Com- mission in Chicago succeeds Mr. Malley in Buffalo.
Harland Bartholomew and Asso- ciates have been engaged to prepare a master plan for Kankakee, Illinois.
Judge Louis C. Cramton, Member of Congress for 16 years, visited Washington in June to receive an honorary degree from Howard Uni-
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Planning and Civic Comment
versity. While here, Associate Di- rector A. E. Demaray of the National Park Service, arranged to take Judge Cramton for a trip to see many of the park areas made possible through the Capper-Cram- ton Act of 1930. Of 4,986.87 acres purchased during the period, 1,343.28 were purchased under the Capper- Cramton Act. In addition 1,686.19 acres of park land in the District of Columbia were acquired by transfer,
dedication or other appropriated funds, making a grand total of 6,672.56 acres of park land in the District. For the George Washing- ton Memorial Parkway, 1,087.76 acres have been purchased, with 340.07 from Capper-Cramton funds. In the National Capital Regional Park System there are now 30,673.34 acres. Judge Cramton has indeed left his mark on the map of Wash- ington.
Portland Oregon Votes Down Civic Center Needed: Citizen Education
By HOLLIS JOHNSTON, Chairman, Committee on Civic Center, Portland City Club
coordinating the need for sites for government and cultural buildings with the need for providing an ade- quate traffic distribution system for downtown Portland, along with automobile parking space to be used by governmental agencies and by the public as well.
The collapse of this program was in two stages. The first stage was at the time of presentation to the City Council, when a compromise was made in an effort to placate property owners in the area who were raising strong objection to the project. The second was when the compro- mised plan was defeated at the polls.
Paradoxically, the virtues of our democratic institutions are, more often than not, attended by the in- effectiveness of attempts at civic improvement. This weakness is a challenge to our democratic proc- esses to provide means of accom- plishing the well-laid plans which often go astray in the melee of political controversy.
Portland is a city whose citizens
The need for bringing our cities up-to-date in providing a physical pattern which is suitable to the needs of modern technical advances is one which thinking people every- where recognize. At the same time, there is obviously a lack of aware- ness on the part of the public in general, and on the part of many property owners, blinded by their own personal selfishness, of doing this job boldly, efficiently and as soon as is economically feasible. The cost of loss of time, loss of property values, loss of lives through traffic accidents, jaded nerves and mental confusion resulting from a lack of planning is tremendous and they are costs which continue day after day.
A very effective example of the tragic unawareness of the public to the need for planning is found in the case of the recent bond issue and millage levy for a civic center in Portland, Oregon, which was de- feated at the polls by a two-to-one majority on June 22. The plan was sound and carefully thought out,
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Planning and Civic Comment
have perhaps, as yet not become fully aware of the need of a dynamic program of civic improvement, al- though its efforts toward planning have probably been more outstand- ing than those of most cities in the country.
The civic center plan, prepared by the Portland City Planning Com- mission under the direction of Arthur D. McVoy, constitutes an integral part of a master plan pro- gram which is underway in Port- land. The location chosen is along the waterfront in a section of the city adjacent to the main business center. This waterfront area was, at one time, the location of both the port and the central business sec- tion. It has been in the process of decay for many years and is one of those areas in what city planners often call the "dirty white collar" surrounding the healthy commercial section of a city. The individual property owners have made few improvements in their property in the last twenty or thirty years. Several buildings have been torn down and the property converted to parking lots. Most of those which stand are old and dilapidated and long ago written off as an invest- ment. The upper floors of many are devoted to shoddy rooming house facilities. Attempts have been made in the past to bring the property owners together for a cooperative development of the district. Such attempts have invariably failed.
Before the war, the income de- rived from this property was low. The assessed values have been re- duced to one-third of what they were in 1920. A tremendous stimu- lation to business in Portland has
come as a result of the war in- dustries, which, incidentally, in- creased the pay roll within the metropolitan area to seven times what it was in 1940. Naturally, the waterfront areas have bene- fited considerably from this artificial stimulus and rental returns have been high in relation to assessed valuations.
The site lies between an estab- lished state arterial highway along the waterfront and the healthy business section of the city. The plan was designed to move traffic off this major highway onto a distributor street connecting to the highway on the north and the south ends of the central commercial area, with con- venient access in both directions. The original plan provided for the purchase of thirty-two small blocks for the grouping of city, county, state and Federal public buildings. It was planned to replat the area so as to provide the large sites re- quired for these buildings and for other public buildings contemplated for the future such as a convention hall and sports pavillion, a natural history museum, a music hall, a horticultural center and some space for expansion of government build- ings. It also provided plazas for festivals and attractive locations for fountains and natural land- scaping. The location is ideal, be- cause it is directly adjacent to the business section, with one of the main north-south traffic arteries along one side and two east-west arteries at the two ends of the civic center area on the north and south ends of the central commercial section. The site faces upon the Willamette River which is a navi-
22
Planning and Civic Comment
gable stream with berthing space for ships along the waterfront adja- cent to downtown Portland. The location provides a close inter- relationship between government offices and the public, and also be- tween the different levels of govern- ment. Not the least advantage of the scheme is the provision for parkingautomobiles under the build- ings and plazas. Parking is de- signed to accommodate the auto- mobiles of the office workers within the buildings, with a considerable area devoted to public parking under some leasing or rental ar- rangement.
The civic center plan was presented to the Council last May through the recommendation of the Portland City Planning Commis- sion and the Portland Area Postwar Development Committee. The prop- erty owners in the area immediately began to realize that their property was likely to be taken, and, no doubt stimulated to a large extent by the excellence of present business conditions, they felt that it would be an imposition on them to be called upon to surrender their property. They were especially dis- turbed by the uncertainty regarding how much money they would be able to get for their land if it were purchased by the city. Some of these property owners formed a political association to oppose the ordinance. Appearing before the Council, they were successful in forcing a compromise. This com- promise removed some twelve blocks from the area submitted to the Council by the City Planning Com- mission. The removal of this area from the submitted plan destroyed
two of the three major advantages of the civic center project as de- signed. They were: (1) the possi- bility of stabilizing downtown prop- erty values in the areas where such values were going down more rapidly and (2) the possibility of providing a street system which would im- measurably improve the movement of traffic into downtown Portland and provide for a much needed ex- tensive area for offstreet parking. Nevertheless, it was decided by the Council to submit the compromised plan to the vote of the people.
The opposition association de- cided to oppose the measure, and raised funds with which to finance a campaign. Their strategy was one of creating confusion and in this respect they were, indeed, success- ful. The tactics involved were as follows:
1. To claim that the businesses repre- sented, which would be displaced by the condemnation of property, would be forced out of existence and the people em- ployed would be thrown out of work.
2. Property would be cancelled from the tax rolls, thus creating an extra tax burden on the other people in the city.
3. The project would involve another "white elephant" (like the existing market building which failed as a market) imply- ing that the market had been built by the city. (Actually, the market was built by private enterprise and contracted to pur- chase by the city when and if it became a successful operation.)
4. That the cost of improving the property, plus the cost of city owned buildings would be $70,000,000, an amount about four times as great as competent estimates indicated.
5. That since there were no definite commitments from state or Federal government agencies regarding locating the buildings in the center, it was a questionable venture.
6. Spreading of a whispering campaign that certain large business interests in Portland were supporting the project for their own personal benefit.
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Planning and Civic Comment
These arguments were all either false or half-truths. One of the serious handicaps to the election was the fact that the opposition was able to carry the civic center issue into the courts, insisting that it was unconstitutional for the city to pur- chase property for uses beyond its own needs. They lost the case in the courts. However, so much time had elapsed that there was not nearly enough time left for a success- ful campaign.
In the short time left, it was ex- tremely difficult for the proponents to answer the issues raised by the opposition, and they were thrown into the defensive from beginning to end. One of the great weaknesses in the presentation was that the public had not been made suffi- ciently aware of the program far enough in advance of the election. Very few people knew what they were voting about. The original plan had met with enthusiastic support by many civic groups. Many who supported the original plan voted against the compromised plan. There was no opportunity to develop a physical plan with sug- gestions for specific buildings which could have been effectively illus- trated and given the public the chance to visualize what the center would be like, since there was so little time left after the compromise was made to develop a detailed plan on this basis. It would doubtless have been wiser to have kept the names of big property owners com- pletely in the background, since a good deal of the criticism was aimed at these people. The opposition had a clever vehicle for attracting the public's attention in devising the
"white elephant" as a symbol for their program and in starting each radio program with an ominous "Beware the White Elephant."
Although both newspapers sup- ported the program, the best news- paper publicity came too late, and it has often been said that news- paper support in Portland is not nearly as effective for quick re- sults as radio support. The op- position appealed to people's preju- dices, while the proponents appealed to civic pride and public benefit.
Another serious weakness in the program was the fact that it was put on a special election ballot with only two other measures, both of which were tax measures. The people who bitterly oppose taxes got out to vote in large numbers. The proponents were depending heavily on high-type citizens and the labor vote. Labor showed up at the polls in pathetically small numbers, and the vote was generally light. Un- doubtedly, there was too much over- confidence on the part of those in favor. This was not helped by the fact that most of the leading civic groups who were in favor of the project were apparently ineffective in getting their members to the polls.
It is plain, from Portland's ex- perience in this election, that civic improvements of this kind must be promoted from long range public enlightenment campaigns. It is too great a task to inform the voters during a short campaign of a month or two. Civic advancement is a subject which should be constantly before the people through the news- papers, the radio and other im- portant means of communication.
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Planning and Civic Comment
It is my own studied opinion that a very extensive program should be carried on in the schools so that the school children can get some ideas about civic improvement and about the principals of good civic planning, year after year, in their school curriculum. They can be very effective in carrying the information, spirit, and enthusiasm, which is so much needed to inform the people of the objectives of planning, to their parents, and in the end they will become educated voters themselves. However, the immediate problem is a serious and difficult one, since the need of action in the period imme- diately following the war is staring us in the face.
The things the planners can learn from this experience are as follows:
1. While plans are in the formative stage, learn more about the attitudes of the people who are affected. Perhaps some compromise at this time will save your plans from complete defeat.
2. Be prepared with alternate schemes based on knowledge gained in number one of the attitudes of people and the political pressures which are likely to be fomented.
3. Make an exhaustive study of all the economical aspects of the project, both for the alternate plans, as well as for the preferred plan.
4. Have this data in a form so it can be used effectively in a campaign.
5. Discuss your plans with councilmen and other leading citizens in their forma- tive stage.
6. Shoot all the reactionaries who you think might get in your way!
The things that public officials should learn from this campaign are as follows:
1. That the support of civic groups does not necessarily mean vote-getting support.
2. The special election is likely to be a dangerous place for a highly controversial issue involving land purchase.
3. Make a militant effort to obtain commitments, even though they are not entirely specific, from agencies which you hope to interest in constructing their buildings in a civic center.
4. Be willing to give the people the facts, where possible, and the best esti- mates available if the facts are not pos- sible.
5. If an advertising agency handles the campaign, see to it that their program is carefully coordinated with the work of the Planning Commission.
6. Encourage the education and en- lightenment of the public constantly, rather than waiting for a specific cam- paign to do so. Selling is best done well in advance.
In a large sense, civic improve- ment is handicapped by inadequate means of raising public funds and a misapprehension on the part of the taxpayer of what government sup- porting taxes, in reality, constitute. Perhaps the political leader can be blamed for public abhorrence of taxes, as a politician always treats them as something objectionable; whereas, the money spent by the taxpayer is a payment for services which he could not possibly supply individually for many times the cost. There is little difference be- tween the support . of government functions and the money paid to merchants or professional men for the services they render.
Planning is the people's business, and until we devise methods of creating a public understanding of its functions and of its advantages to the people, we can be assured that we shall be meeting with defeat and frustration in our efforts to make city life more successful and bearable through the improvement of our civic facilities.
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Britain's Plans for the Smaller Town
By ARTHUR RICHMOND*
Over 90 percent of the working population of Britain is engaged in non-agricultural occupations. From being a country which was agricul- turally self-supporting, it was trans- formed, within a little more than a century, into one which had to buy much of its food from abroad. With- in that period large numbers of country folk migrated to the towns where the new factories were spring- ing up which had destroyed their home industries. During the nine- teenth and the present century more and more of the population of Britain congregated in the towns and cities, until today Greater London alone includes about one- fifth of the inhabitants of England arid Wales, while whole areas in some parts are so thickly dotted with towns that there is little open country between them.
Since World War I, London, in particular, has spread its tentacles over miles and miles of what 25 years ago was open country. Green fields have receded so far from the older part of the city that many hardly ever see them; and those who work in London and for reasons of econ- omy and health, live in the outskirts, the daily journey has become longer and more arduous.
Before World War II the grave disadvantages of the concentration of employment in the few great cities was resulting in some organiza- tions placing staff in the provinces. War with its threat of aerial bom- bardment led to a great evacuation. Hundreds of organizations removed
26
thousands of employees from the great cities to temporary offices and makeshift homes. The damage that has been inflicted on the cities of Britain has led the Government and local authorities to consider how the cities shall be rebuilt and whether the moment has not arrived for a national policy to be adopted for the diversion of indoor occupations — whether industrial or clerical — away from the large centers of population and into towns of modest dimen- sions.
Today, people in Britain are war- conscious, and above all air-war conscious. Consequently their minds have become aware of the strategic dangers of large agglomera- tions of industry and population. But that is not the sole or even the main consideration which is turning men's minds in the direction of an ordered redistribution of population. Society has come more clearly to see the disadvantages for human development and a civilized way of life of the concentration of large populations in small areas; with little space about them; with long journeys to make to and from work; with the lack of any sense of inti- mate community. War, too, has revealed to the larger public the reality of overcrowding; the poor standard of life, and indeed of con- duct, of many of those who grow up and spend their lives in tenements,
*Son of the painter Sir William Richmond. R.A. ; Vice-Chairman and Controller of the Land Settle- ment Association and member of the Dispersal Survey Committee set up by the National Council of Social Service of which organization he is a former secretary.
Planning and Civic Comment
where there is no privacy and some- times nowhere but in the streets for children to play.
It has thus come to be very gener- ally recognized that in the national interest, a policy for the dispersal of population is called for. By some means industries must be prevented from flowing into and swelling the size of great cities; businesses such as banks, insurance offices and the like employing large numbers of people, must be encouraged to de- centralize their work and measures should be adopted by the central Government to ensure that the process of change shall be carried out without injuries to the industries and businesses concerned. Full con- sideration too must be given to the human needs of those who are up- rooted from familiar surroundings and compelled to adjust themselves to very different conditions. The planning of the areas which are to receive new populations must be consonant with a more enlightened conception of community and per- sonal life than in the past.
We are at the beginning of a new age. The influence of advancing education is making itself felt in the demand for the extension to all sec- tions of the population of opportuni- ties to share in interests hitherto reserved for a limited class. The growing control of mankind over mechanical production is releasing men from excessive hours of work and we have to learn to use our new- found and perhaps growing leisure. The absurdity of wasting two or more hours a day in going to and from work in crowded trains is be- ginning to impress itself on the minds of those who undergo it. And
then, too, in England people have an unquenchable love of flowers and gardens. The irresistible nostalgia for a home and bit of land has led in the past to some of the worst des- ecration of the countryside. For, in their endeavor to meet a general demand, building speculators have covered large areas with little houses and gardens without plan or taste, and have often created new social and administrative problems.
The issue is exceedingly compli- cated. Of the many people who were removed to safer quarters from cities exposed to bombardment, the ma- jority want to return home, but some have discovered the advantages of life in a more compact commun- ity. Those government departments which employ large numbers of people in clerical work should cer- tainly arrange permanently to estab- lish them away from London. Some insurance companies and banks and other large commercial institutions are contemplating doing this. But innumerable personal difficulties must be overcome. Houses must be built in the reception areas; schools must be provided for the new popu- lations; medical services must be extended; the social and cultural needs of the people must be met; for those who have been used, for in- stance, to have the theaters and concert halls of London within reach, will not want to be deprived of them. It will not be easy for the new population to be assimilated with that of the existing one in the places to which they are transferred. Then it has to be remembered that with all its disadvantages a great city like London or Birmingham or Glasgow offers a wider choice of
27
Planning and Civic Comment
employment than a small one; better chances of promotion; and for women better marriage chances.
If it be decided that what has come to be known as dispersal is to be encouraged, how is the process to be directed and controlled? To answer this question one has to remember the traditional way in which people of Britain approach any major problem. In the first place they do not rely on the Gov- ernment to find the whole solution. They expect the Government to give an example in a matter of this kind by pronouncing in favor of a policy, and perhaps adopting specific measures for the execution of it. But they do not expect it to formu- late specific plans to be carried out systematically according to a care- fully thought out program.
Once a policy is generally adopted by the nation innumerable agencies automatically get busy. Municipal authorities that regard their area as suitable for the reception of new population begin — and they are be- ginning— to plan developments that will help industry and trade to settle there and will give the new population the services and ameni- ties they need. Industry and busi- ness houses discuss the issue with their staffs — and they are discussing it — ascertain the personal difficulties to be overcome and seek to find areas where those departments that are established out of London can easily maintain touch with head office in London, and the staff are likely to find the educational, medical and other social services necessary to their contentment. Voluntary bodies study how to ease the process of transfer, how to overcome the
personal difficulties involved, how to promote the fusion of the new- comer into the life of the old com- munity, how to overcome jealousies and the creation of sectional hos- tilities.
Now that the view is being more accepted that it would be in the national interest for our population to be better distributed over the country, the process of achieving redistribution seems likely to be organic in character rather than artificial. This is not to say that there will not be much opposition to proposals which involve the per- manent uprooting of people from the areas where they have friends and all sorts and kinds of affiliations but, in Britain, the people as a whole will accept a policy which they recognize as right and coope- rate extensively in its realizations.
The process may be slow, but so many British cities have been damaged by bombardment, and London, in particular, has had so many thousands of houses destroyed, that the pressing need for new houses may accelerate it.
A striking lead has been given by Britain's Government which decided that the new Department of Social Insurance is to have its head- quarters not in London but in the northeast of England, at Newcastle- on-Tyne. This is a break with tradi- tion. It sets the ball of dispersal rolling. If the redistribution of population can be carried out with vision and imagination new cities can arise in which conditions of life will be far superior to those we have hitherto known. Men and women will be able to live fuller and richer lives.
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Mayor's Anti-Slum Commission in Saint Louis
On July 9, 1945, Mayor Kaufmann of Saint Louis announced the ap- pointment of a three-member Anti- Slum Commission to coordinate and spearhead rehabilitation plans. The Chairman of the Commission is James L. Ford, Jr., Vice-President of the First National Bank of Saint Louis and a member of the City Plan Commission. Mr. Ford, who headed the Citizens Committee on Smoke Elimination, scored a signal success in that project which has attracted attention throughout the United States. The other members of the Commission are E. J. Russell, eminent architect and Chairman of the City Plan Commission and Harland Bartholomew, Engineer for the City Plan Commission, past President of the American City Planning Institute (Now American Institute of Planners) and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Planning and Civic As- sociation, who has served as con- sultant for a score or more progres- sive cities. The close tie-up with the Plan Commission should insure ade- quate planning for each redeveloped district.
In making the appointments the Mayor declared:
A three-man Anti-Slum Commission has been formed to coordinate plans of private, public and quasi-public housing agencies and civic organizations and to map an over-all program for ridding Saint Louis of slums and rehabilitating large areas of decay, commonly termed blighted districts.
At the same time I commend the Saint Louis Real Estate Exchange and Chamber of Commerce for their recently announced support in this drive to eradicate slums, which cost many times as much to main- tain as they produce in taxes.
In accepting the responsibility, Mr. Ford issue a convincing and informed statement. Said he:
By their very nature . . . slums are the germ of the disease which eats its way into the entire body of the city. Slums start from the obsolescence of perhaps only one building in a certain block. One wreck of a building, with its unsightly dilapidation, its rat burrows, flooded cellar and breeding places for filth, vermin and disease, can destroy an area. Sufficient areas may destroy a city.
Spot building changes will not save a district. Our people have learned that a $10,000 house in a $2,000 neighborhood will shortly become a $2,000 house or one of no value at all. Nothing can save a slum except complete eradication and re- building or use for some other worthy purpose.
This objective must be obtained, whether through the employment of gov- ernment, public or private funds. In my own opinion, so great is the necessity and so wide-spread the need, all sources of funds may be necessary.
If the advocates of nothing but private housing, as opposed to public housing, can offer a satisfactory solution of the mag- nitude required, we should certainly con- sider their plans first, provided they are great enough in scope, economical to the city and concrete in form for early pro- cedure. Public housing is not intended to be all-embracing, but should certainly be used in part, and in large part if necessary, if no other more satisfactory means are available. Public housing, even to a limited degree, may not be the answer liked by all, but after all it is something — it is action.
Slums have been with us for perhaps a hundred years. Few of the owners or agents of the owners have done anything whatsoever about them. Private interest seemed utterly lacking until public in- terest appeared. No such small thing as theoretical objection should stand in the way of saving a city from desolation and dilapidation. Drastic action is imperative, and no mistaken interest of a few should block the happiness, prosperity and wel- fare of the many.
Mr. Ford quoted the Conference of Mayors to the effect that:
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Planning and Civic Comment
Slum and blighted districts comprise about 20 percent of the metropolitan residential areas and account for: 45 percent of the major crimes, 55 percent of the juvenile delinquency, 60 percent of the tuberculosis, 50 percent of the disease, 45 percent of the city service cost
and contribute only 6 percent of the real estate property taxes.
Mr. Ford warned the citizens of Saint Louis that:
.It is easily possible and perhaps likely that this City of Saint Louis, if nothing is done about it, is on its way back to a popu- lation of 600,000 or less in the next four decades. If this proves to be the case, Saint Louis as a city is bankrupt, as it cannot service itself on a population of that size. Staggering losses face its citizens in decreased values of property and in business losses unless a tendency toward desolation and decrepitude, which is very apparent and provable, is stopped and stopped soon.
Mr. Ford continues:
Our city ... is shrinking in two-thirds of its area. Only an outer fringe is gaining in population and the vacant ground in that district is largely used up. Our citizens will never go back to the desolation of the blighted area if it remains blighted, and more and more of them will constantly leave the area. Something must be done about it — something so radical and im- pressive that it must be revolutionary even to the extent of tearing down and rebuild- ing large sections of Saint Louis. Slums, while the causative agent, are a small part of the whole. The great middle classes, that respectable element which makes up the backbone of any community, must have a place to live a life of well-being. If our city is to survive, that place must be within, and well within, the city.
We must have our slum clearance, but such improvements are necessarily con- fined to the low-priced and distant areas. Our great mid-section of the city should be built up for higher income workers.
Our Plaza should be greatly enlarged and faced with decent and attractive multiple dwelling places located there by public or private funds. There could very easily be built a section from Twelftn Street to Grand Avenue which, facing plazas, playgrounds and community
centers, would offer irresistible appeal because of its improvement over the old and its convenience to the life of the city.
A monumental riverfront may perhaps be the crowning feature of all improve- ments.
Saint Louis should improve itself — not just in spots unseen by the average citizen but in great areas where the rebuilt city will be seen by all. Community centers could be treated in like manner in other parts of the city. . . .
I have based my plea for this renovation and complete rehabilitation of our city up to this point purely on the grounds of economic salvation. Cold dollar considera- tions should appeal to each and every citizen, but how about the humanitarian side — the upbuilding of the health and character of our people through a removal of the sore spots contributing with their decaying filth, the vermin, disease, crime and distress that no human should endure in our city? How about a life of well- being and contentment that will come with this betterment and mean so much to the morale of our citizens? . . .
Once we have made up our minds, we must proceed with unrelenting will to create not just a better Saint Louis, but a great city in which we will all be proud to live.
So Mr. Ford appealed to the citi- zens who must support the plans of the Anti-Slum Commission if it is to accomplish its goal. It should be remembered that Missouri is one of the States which has adopted an Act to encourage large private financial institutions to participate in slum clearance through the con- struction of housing projects. It should also be understood that under the State Constitution, Saint Louis has the authority to purchase by condemnation or otherwise whatever land it decides to acquire. These advantages the city has at the out- set. But the making of more de- tailed physical and financial plans is still ahead. Saint Louis is off to a good start. She has a good Com- mission and the initial statement of its Chairman indicates an under-
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Planning and Civic Comment
standing of the many controversial issues which have cropped up in the discussions in most cities, and a very sound determination to use all avail-
able aids to bring about that com- prehensive redevelopment without which no city can hope to rescue itself from blight and decay.
A Postwar Transportation Survey
Honorable Clarence F. Lea of California, Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and For- eign Commerce, and also of the Sub- committee on Transportation, on July 12, 1945, filed a Resolution to authorize an investigation of the Nation's transportation situation with particular reference to postwar problems. According to Representa- tive Lea:
This proposal stems from a growing realization on the part of the Subcom- mittee on Interstate and Foreign Com- merce that in this field of industry we face a most perplexing and vital post- war problem. . . This problem is vital because transportation is the connecting link between our producing machine and the consuming public. Without adeauate economical transportation our whole economy can bog down no matter how much energy, wisdom and capital our industrial executives may put into the other phases of reconversion from a war economy to an economy of peace.
Failure to provide legislative reme- dies to meet the needs of our transporta- tion system or failure to focus the thought of leaders in the transportation field upon their own responsibility, apart from legislation, in meeting their post- war problems, can prolong by years the Nation's period of reconversion to peace. Indeed, it might even throw our economy into chaos.
In spite of the overwhelming impor- tance of these problems, our planning to date for a national transportation system geared to a postwar United States, has been sporadic, haphazard and without sufficient coordination. . . .
A quarter of a century ago, when Congress approached the task of turning
the railroads back to their owners, after 26 months of Federal control, the prob- lem faced was mainly a railroad problem. This is not so today. It is, on the other hand, a general transportation problem.
Today we have the problem of a general transportation system composed of important and competing agencies in- cluding transportation by rail, highway, water, air and pipe lines. Each of these types of transportation is capable of performing a service that in some re- spects has advantages over all its com- petitors. The Nation has the problem of coordinating these different types of transportation with a view of best serving the interest of the Nation and with fairness to the competing agencies.
At the beginning of the war, our country had 30,500 miles of navigable inland waterways served in our peace- time by over 11,000 vessels; over 8,000 miles of coastal and inter-coastal water routes competing with our rail and high- way carriers.
There are 1,302 railroad corporations in the United States, of which 136 are so-called class 1 roads, operating 230,000 miles of privately owned lines and terminals.
From less than 10,000 miles of hard- surfaced highways in 1919, this country now has nearly 1^ million miles of such roads — 230,000 miles of which have re- ceived Federal aid. 26,200 trucking companies and over 1,500 motor bus companies operate more than 5 million trucks and buses over this network of roadways.
There are now over 3,000 airports in the United States; the Civil Aeronautics Authority has plans for 3,000 more. There are approximately 35,000 lighted airline miles.
There is a vast network of pipe lines throughout the United States. These
31
Planning and Civic Comment
facilities are being expanded and are a potent force in the changing areas of production and distribution.
These transportation agencies have demonstrated their ability to perform a great service to our Nation. With con- fidence we believe they will yet perform a more highly perfected service. Our regulatory system, more perfected can aid them.
To a very large extent all of these forms of transportation have been de- veloped without proper coordination with each other. Each has its own economic problems; each is highly com- petitive with the others, yet each is a useful part of our transportation system.
The public is paying a tremendous bill for all of these services, both through direct charges and taxation. The ser- vices of all these agencies intimately touch the daily life of every citizen. Those engaged in agriculture and in- dustry are dependent on efficient trans- portation to move their products to con- sumers at the lowest possible cost. This Nation cannot prosper and can scarcely exist without an adequate and efficient system of transportation.
In the light of profound changes in the economy of this industry and its relation to the country, we must adjust legislation and administrative control to an entirely new set of conditions.
Obviously, the primary function of all agencies is to render adequate, ef- ficient and convenient service for ship- pers and travelers at the most reasonable charges consistent with the enlightened treatment of the carriers. Charges for
services should be as low as they can be made without sacrificing the sound standards evolved from the experience of many years. . . .
We trust that our inquiry will result in "a consistent public policy fair to all competing agencies of transport, to the using and investing public, and to labor to the end that the country's commerce may be moved with the greatest possible degree of economy, safety and dis- patch."
Representative Lea is to be con- gratulated on the initiative of his Committee. This is a task which very much needs to be done. His remarks on the floor of the House indicate a fair and informed ap- proach. We shall watch the develop- ment of the investigations under the Resolution with great interest.
The members of the Subcommit- tee are Representatives Clarence F. Lea of California, Robert Grosser of Ohio, Alfred L. Bulwinkle of North Carolina, Lyle H. Boren of Okla- homa, J. Percy Priest of Tennessee, Orin Harris of Arkansas, George G. Sadowski of Michigan, Charles A. Wolverton of New Jersey, Pehr G. Holmes of Massachusetts, B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee, Charles A. Halleck of Indiana, and Clarence J. Brown of Ohio.
32
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THE NATIONAL PARKS AND PRIVATE IN-HOLDINGS
The orderly, programmed acquisition of the non-Federal lands which lie within the approved boundaries of the 168 areas of the National Park System — amounting, in all, to more than 600,000 acres — is one of the major tasks ahead of the National Park Service, in the opinion of Director Newton B. Drury. Although these lands represent only about three per cent of the gross area of the System, the handicap they impose on satisfactory development and administration is out of all proportion to their extent.
Since the owner of lands in a park or monument has exactly the same rights with respect to them as any other landowner anywhere, there is nothing to prevent him from establishing undesirable develop- ments or removing his timber or using his land in such fashion as to de- plete it or to cause damaging erosion, the effects of which may extend beyond his own boundaries. At the same time, the Service finds it difficult to plan the areas it administers if lands required for needed developments remain in private hands; the construction of needed roads and trails is complicated by them; it is obliged to provide access to them; and there is always the threat of fires spreading from them to damage Federal property.
Occasionally Congress has appropriated funds for the purchase of interior holdings. However, these have been piecemeal steps, usually involving the obtaining of matching funds from other sources. The facts of the situation, and the extent of the problem, need to be pre- sented to the public and the Congress so that its importance may be recognized and provision made for long-range, carefully programmed acquisition.
A few of the many problems involved are illustrated on the follow- ing pages.
The cover page shows probably the finest stand of Biglow cholla in southern California. It is located on privately owned land within the boundaries of Joshua Tree National Monument, California.
This virgin stand of Ponderosa pine, located just west of the con- tinental divide in Glacier National Park, is almost the last of this species in this vicinity. Here is shown only a small part of the 10,000 acres owned by the State of Montana within the park boundaries. It is possible that the State holdings will soon be logged off as plans have been made to sell the timber from one section now.
Goat and sheep sheds on a 320-acre tract of private land within the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.
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The Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany owns approximately 135,000 acres of land within the boundaries of Joshua Tree National Monument. Shown at the left are typical scenes on the Southern Pacific holdings. If present plans to sell to promoters for desert homesites ma- terialize, the charm and beauty of the area will be seriously impaired.
The miscellaneous structures on pri- vate lands at the Menor's Ferry bridge in Jackson Hole National Monument, shown below, are all too prominent in the foreground of this view of the Teton Mountains.
Mining claims which have not been worked for many years provide "horrible examples" of the way in which the natural scenery can be marred by activities wholly alien to the National Parks in which they have been carried on. All of the pictures on these two pages were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.
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Shown at the lejt is part of a 300-acre tract owned by the Northern Pacific Railway Company within the boundaries of and near the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. Though the company had offers oj purchase that would have resulted in logging this fine timber, it delayed sale until the National Park Service found means to buy it, at a very reasonable price.
The lands in Olympic National Park, shown above, pro- vide an example of what can happen to privately owned park forests. Giants have fallen here.
Summer homes on private property within the National Park Sys- tem create special problems of administration and protection. Poor sanitation and dilapidated construction make a bad impression on park visitors. The beautiful spot lying on both sides of McDonald Creek at the foot of Lake McDonald, in Glacier National Park, Montana, is privately owned and operated. Cabins on private hold- ings in Yosemite National Park, California, create high fire hazards, endangering nearby Giant Sequoias.
There are several real estate subdivisions lying within the bound- aries of our National Parks. The largest and most troublesome ones are in Glacier, Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Olympic, Rocky Mountain and Yosemite. Buildings constructed on them show little regard jor building design or for sanitation and fire protection. Many lots have been sold and resold several times; many have been aban- doned and become tax delinquent. The top picture shows a typical cabin in a Yosemite National Park subdivision. The bottom picture tells its own story.
Information
JUNIPER LAKE RESORT AND TRACT OFFICE
FOR
Subdivision of Privately Owned Property IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK
Commercial enterprises on private holdings create many prob- lems for the National Park Service. These scenes show sawmill operations on private property in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, and a gravel pit, privately owned, in Olympic National Park, operated by the Washington State Highway Department.
Taverns, dance halls and souvenir stands are other types of com- mercial enterprises on private holdings within the National Park System. Pictured below are some establishments within the bound- aries of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
Many areas in the National Park System east of the Mis- sissippi River are historical in character and it is the policy of the National Park Service to preserve the historical scene in these areas as nearly as possible. The encroachment of private holdings makes this difficult or impossible of ac- complishment.
The frame building stands on private property in the very center of the location of the Grand French Battery, one of the principal earthworks built by the French and American armies during the siege of Yorktown. This is a part of Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia.
The automobile "grave yard" is located on private property near one of the entrances to Gettysburg National Historical Park, Pennsyl- vania, and covers the exact location of a strong Union Artillery posi- tion in the Battle of Gettysburg.
The battery in the lower picture points toward some buildings of a tourist camp on private property at Gettysburg National Military Park. Removal of these structures would restore the historical scene and greatly improve appearances.
The site of the Shiloh Church, Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee is on private property. Though jagged and ivy covered, these stone walls give a false impression of antiquity. This unfinished building, dating back to only 1928, has nothing in common with the original church except location. The original church, which gave its name to the battle that surged around it in 1862, was a one room log building. This property should be acquired, these "ruins" removed and the unintentional deception corrected.
The view along U. S. Highway 211, just inside the entrance to Shenandoah National Park, Virginia shows a private in-holding roadside stand selling rugs, chairs, fruit, etc. The homemade signs are typical of this region.
State Park
A meeting of the Board of Direc- tors of the National Conference on State Parks will be held on Sep- tember 21, in connection with the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors held at Cumberland Mountain State Park, Crossville, Tenn. Harold W. Lathrop, President of the Con- ference, will preside.
Many national leaders in the state park field will attend the meeting, which will have as its general theme the gearing of rapidly growing state park and recreation programs to postwar needs for outdoor recreation.
William M. Hay, President of the Association, will preside at the opening session. Paul S. Mathes, Commissioner, Tennessee Depart- ment of Conservation, will welcome the delegates.
Governor Jim McCord will ad- dress the dinner meeting on the first day. Other speakers are: Newton B. Drury, Director, National Park Service; Mrs. Kendall Bryan, Camp- ing Consultant, Girl Scouts of America; Howard K. Menhinick, Director, Department of Regional Studies, TVA; Reynold Carlson, Director, Nature Activities Service, National Recreation Association ; Porter TuII, Director, Water Safety
and Accident Prevention, American Red Cross.
On Friday, September 21, follow- ing joint meeting with NCSP, the delegates will leave for Gatlinburg where they will be greeted by Blair Ross, Superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, followed by nature lectures and pictures by Arthur Stupka, natural- ist, National Park Service. The meeting will continue through Sep- tember 22, with trips through the Park conducted by Mr. Stupka.
Congress provided in the 1946 Interior Appropriation Act the sum of $68,000 for park, parkway, and recreational-area studies in coopera- tion with the States, under the authority of the Act of June 23, 1936. In order to handle this work, the National Park Service is setting up a small staff, experienced in the field of park and recreation planning, in the Director's Office in Chicago, and in each of its regional offices located in Richmond, Virginia; Omaha, Nebraska; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and San Francisco, Cali- fornia.
This personnel will enable the Service to meet requests for general consultant services, and to keep in
49
Planning and Civic Comment
closer touch with state park officials and their problems. It is not con- templated that services will be pro- vided which are properly state responsibilities; in this connection, the Service hopes to be of assistance to the states in setting up adequate planning organizations of their own.
During the war, National Park Service cooperation with respect to state park and recreation planning was virtually suspended. The ex- tent of cooperation was necessarily confined to the assembly and com- pilation of annual statistics on per- tinent phases of state park operations and to limited advisory assistance, more of which was handled by correspondence.
Alabama: A modern, year-round state park will be constructed in Marshall County, Alabama, near Guntersville, according to a recent announcement by Conservation Di- rector Ban C. Morgan. Plans for the area have been the outgrowth of discussions with officials of the Tennessee Valley Authority which has offered the site of approximately 4,000 acres east of Guntersville for the park. Preliminary plans call for the building of 50 cabins to care for overnight, week-end and vacation guests. In addition, there will be a dining hall, recreation hall and dance pavillion. A bathing beach and bathhouse, as well as docks and boating facilities are also included in the plans.
California: Recent legislation au- thorizes and directs the Department of Natural Resources through the State Park Commission ". . . to make such supplemental surveys as may be necessary to determine what lands are suitable and desirable for
inclusion in a well-balanced system of State parks and beaches. In the selection of sites, it shall be the policy of the Commission" ... to provide recreational facilities for those sections of the State where such facilities are not now available and particularly in the valley, desert, and mountain areas of the interior." The sum of $15,000,000 was ap- propriated for acquiring lands for public recreational purposes, in- cluding ocean beaches, tidewater bays and inlets.
Governor Earl Warren signed Senate Bill 1256 on July 15, at Columbia, making that historic ghost town a part of the State Park System. The bill provides $50,000, which shall be matched with private funds, to acquire land and structures in the old business section of the town, and other buildings of suf- ficient historic significance to be included in the project. Frederick Law Olmsted, who conducted the 1928 State Park Survey, designated Columbia as the most authentic and best preserved of all of the mining towns, and recommended it as a possible state park.
Florida: By amendment to the State Park Law the legislature con- firmed the Florida Board of Forestry and Parks resolution of April 14, establishing the Florida Park Ser- vice on equal footing with the Florida Forest Service. Both parks and forests were previously administered by the Florida Forest and Park Service. With the impetus of a separate organization and with ap- propriations of more than twice that of last year, the future of state parks in Florida looks bright.
Iowa: V. W. Flickinger has been
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Planning and Civic Comment
released from the Army and has resumed his position as Chief, Division of Lands and Waters.
Massachusetts: Archibald E. Sloper, prominent as a conservationist and formerly a Commissioner of Mount Greylock Reservation, has suc- ceeded Raymond J. Kenny as Com- missioner of Conservation, and George J. Keville has succeeded Edgar L. Gillette as Director of Parks and Recreation.
Castle Neck, a beach tract of nearly 1,000 acres at Ipswich, has been conveyed by Mrs. Richard T. Crane, Jr. to the Trustees of Public Reservations for administration as the "Richard T. Crane Jr. Memorial Reservation." The area will be opened to the general public under regulations laid down by the Trus- tees, including reasonable fees for use of the bathhouse, parking areas, and other facilities. This gift pre- serves for public enjoyment, an interesting portion of the New England coast including sand dunes, beach, and upland.
Michigan: The Conservation Com- mission approved recently the con- veyance of a 15-acre State park site in the city of Cheboygan to Che- boygan County. A number of state park agencies might profitably re- examine and reappraise some of their holdings with a view to trans- ferring to counties and communities parks of purely local significance.
Minnesota: The 1945 Minnesota Legislature authorized the acquisi- tion of five new state park areas, thereby increasing the Minnesota system to 56 areas, comprising in excess of 82,500 acres. Twenty-five are classified as state parks, five as state memorial parks, three state
recreational reserves, one a state scenic reserve, thirteen as state waysides and nine as state monu- ments.
Baptism River State Park, lo- cated along one of the many beauti- ful North Shore rivers, which emp- ties into Lake Superior, as the largest of the new acquisitions. It comprises 506 acres, and contains the High Falls of Baptism River, which is the largest water falls in the State, and in addition, several smaller water falls and cascades.
Other important acquisitions are Kilen Woods State Park along the Des Moines River, and Nerstrand Woods, an excellent example of virgin hardwood timber, lying but thirty-five miles south of the Twin Cities.
As of the first of August, it appears that the attendance to the Min- nesota State Parks will exceed that of 1942, the first year America was in the war, and will be about 85 percent of the all-time 1941 peak, when a million four hundred fifty thousand persons visited the park system. Such a high war-time use is attributed to an exceptionally heavy use by rural residents, and a decided increase in use by the urban population due to the extra gas available.
Missouri: Charles D. Bell is now Acting Chief of State Parks suc- ceeding Fred W. Pape.
South Dakota: Elmer Peterson has been named Director of the newly established South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department. E. L. Burns, who has been acting as Superintendent of Custer State Park, has recently been appointed as Superintendent.
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Town Planning in Canada
By E. G. FALUDI, Town Planning Consultant, Toronto, Ontario
The appointment of a Minister for edly against the interests of resi-
Planning and Development for the Province of Ontario and the creation of a Department of Town Planning within the National Housing Ad- ministration is a revolutionary step in assisting to plan Canadian towns and cities. The position of Planning Consultant to the Dominion Gov- ernment has been officially justified as "assisting in the development of better public understanding of the principles of community planning and promoting the adoption of such planning by Canadian municipali- ties."
In the Province of Ontario the new ministry intends to initiate and create plans which will be worked out by municipal bodies and pro- vincial departments and other public authorities. The projects in view would include low rental housing, reforestation, soil and water con- servation and rural development. The Premier of Ontario believes that the province will be able to support a population of 25,000,000 in a higher degree of prosperity than ever.
The majority of Canadian urban centers are now making efforts to attract new industries, because they believe that these will be incentives for immigration of people from either the surrounding rural areas or even from distant towns. There is great competition between towns and cities to bring in more industries and to offer more facilities to attract those industries. The area located for these new industries is very often chosen at the expense of and decid-
dential areas. This situation pre- sents Dominion and Provincial plan- ners with some alarming problems. Should these towns be planned for a growing population and, if so, how far into the future should they be planned for? Will the additional growth by immigration really occur and what percentage of it will be channelized to the industrial cities; what to the commercial and agri- cultural centers? Most of the muni- cipalities of Canada are not at all aware of the long-term problems with which their lives will be in- volved for a generation to come. They are aware more or less of the short-term problems; what of the coordination of private enterprise to prepare jobs for the returned soldiers and industrial workers now engaged in the war effort.
All political and planning author- ities in Canada are agreed that post- war employment cannot be created haphazardly or only by public works which are related to the rou- tine work of the civic department. There must be planning on a much larger scale in both public works and private enterprise.
About twenty cities and towns in Canada have formed city planning committees or commissions and, with the guidance of planning con- sultants are working on long-term plans; the major cities are Halifax, Montreal, Saint John, Hamilton, Toronto, Windsor, Vancouver and Winnipeg where offices and tech- nical staffs are collaborating with planning consultants.
52
MVA — Pros and Cons
The Bill to create the Missouri Valley Authority is having hard sledding in the Senate. After lengthy hearings, the Senate Committee on Commerce reported adversely on Senator Murray's S 555, and, though hearings are scheduled for Septem- ber before a Senate Sub-Committee on Irrigation and later before a Sub- Committee on Agriculture, neither friends nor foes of the bill appear to expect its passage at this session of Congress.
But, sooner or later, Congress must decide, in the light of public opinion, whether it will divide the continental USA into River Valley Authorities, with jurisdiction over the waters and social and economic life of the people of the region, or whether it will continue to authorize service and Federal Aid directly to the States and the people through Federal functional agencies.
The principal organizations giv- ing support to the Murray Bill are the National Farmers Union of tenant farmers and small land owners, the AFL, the CIO, and public power advocates and sup- porters of TVA. All supporting or- ganizations met in Omaha in July and formed the Missouri Valley Regional Committee. They want to see a unified program reconciling the differences between the various demands for river development. Their most potent argument is successful TVA.
Those opposed to river valley authorities and the bill to create MVA are united under the leader- ship of the well-established National
Reclamation Association and the National Rivers and Harbors Con- gress, which, acting with 29 other organizations mostly concerned with navigation and irrigation, have con- ducted an attack upon the entire program for river authorities. A pamphlet prepared by Judge Clif- ford H. Stone of Denver (who, it may be remembered, addressed the American Planning and Civic Assoc- iation at Santa Fe in 1939 and at Omaha in 1943) declares that these regional corporations will constitute a change in the American form of government; that TVA has been granted many powers which were never surrendered to the Federal Government by the sovereign States, some of which have not been used. Opponents of the bill express fear that the proposed MVA would up- set the delicate balance now main- tained between the Federal func- tional agencies and state administra- tions.
The clash between the advocates of various types of use for the waters of the United States is nothing new. When navigation was one of the few methods of transportation in this country, navigable waters were put, and remain, under Federal control, and one of the principal outdoor sports of local communities has been to try to secure substantial Federal appropriations for river and harbor developments, which can be charged to the Federal budget, without ob- ligation or promise of reimburse- ment. Traditionally, the improve- ment of rivers and harbors has been an important peacetime responsi-
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Planning and Civic Comment
bility of the competent Corps of Army Engineers.
But, in the desperate claims for water in the arid and semi-arid regions of the West, the States have established water titles far more important and valuable than land titles. Desert land at a dollar an acre, if well irrigated, may become valuable farm land at $200 an acre. The water users under Reclamation Projects are very jealous of their rights.
In 1920 came the Federal Power Commission which grants licenses for power projects. But in an amendment passed by Congress in 1921, at the request of the then American Civic Association and other conservation groups, the Na- tional Parks were exempted from the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission, as it was felt that the natural scenery in these priceless possessions should not be injured by works of purely commercial value.
During the years, as the river valleys became settled and the forests on the upper watersheds were cut, we have been plagued by increasingly disastrous floods. And so Congress started out to mitigate the destruction caused by floods, at first with remedial measures and later by preventive works. Under authority of Congress, flood control has been handled by the Army Engineers.
Both power and irrigation works bring returns from users — theoreti- cally enough to amortize the invest- ment. From the beginning the Federal Power Commission worked closely with the Army Engineers and developed dual-purpose projects
in which navigation bore a sub- stantial part of the cost, leaving a more modest investment on which to pay out for power installation.
Then the so-called multiple-pur- pose projects developed, in which power, irrigation, flood control and navigation shared the costs, spread the benefits and reduced the capital investment on which reclamation and power were to pay out.
The American Planning and Civic Association has had occasion in the past to oppose some of these multiple-purpose projects. Recently we appeared in opposition to the multiple-purpose program for the Potomac River; but we are glad to say that the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors announced that it would make an adverse re- port on the multiple-use proposals, in view of the testimony that the economic sacrifices of existing hu- man and property values were greater than the promised returns from power. This will leave the flood control measures, including restoration of forest and ground cover on the banks of the Potomac, to rest on their own appropriations and promised benefits. Since the multiple-purpose dams would have rendered small service to stream purity, the responsibility also is now squarely up to the proper authorities to proceed with an effective abate- ment of stream pollution.
Under the provisions of the Murray Bill there would be estab- lished the Missouri Valley Authority, a corporation, directed by a board of three directors (who may or may not be residents of the Valley), appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, to serve
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Planning and Civic Comment
staggered terms of nine years, to be paid $15,000 annually. The Board would employ a general manager and staff and would be assisted by an unpaid advisory committee con- sisting of the principal officers of the Federal Departments of In- terior, Agriculture, Commerce, Jus- tice, War, Federal Power Commis- sion, Federal Security Agency, and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and nine persons, residents of the Valley, three to be selected by the President to repre- sent agriculture, three commerce and three labor, for staggered terms of nine years. This advisory com- mittee of 17 is directed to meet not less than once a year, and is to re- ceive the Annual Report of the Board and transmit it to the Presi- dent.
The corporation would be given wide powers to acquire by con- demnation or otherwise, lands and waters for its projects. Under the bill there is a limited provision to safeguard vested rights acquired under the laws of the States. The MVA would be charged with the responsibility of making a complete plan for unified control and utiliza- tion of the waters of the Missouri River system to reconcile and har- monize the requirements for flood control, navigation, reclamation, agricultural purposes, power and other needs in such a way as to secure the maximum public benefit for the region and the Nation.
In the Hearings before the Senate Sub-Committee on Commerce, at- tention was called to the fact that the Missouri Valley, with its 2460- mile river, covers about one-sixth of the area of the continental U. S.
55
and involves seven States, later expanded to 10. Those who favor the bill believe that it would in- augurate great reforms to lift the standard of living in the Valley. They have great faith in centralized and unified authority.
The organizations and officials opposed to the Murray Bill claim that they are satisfied to deal with the existing Federal agencies; that on flood control Colonel Lewis Pick (who later built the Ledo Road) has made a plan (described to the APCA at the Omaha Conference in 1943) which, with the approval of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, as modified and combined with the Sloan Reclamation plan, is now authorized in the Flood Con- trol Act of 1944. They call attention to the Federal Interagency River Basin Committee which now meets monthly in Washington, composed of one member each from the Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclama- tion, Federal Power Commission, and Land Use Coordinator of the Department of Agriculture, as an effective coordinating agency oper- ated without additional expense.
Also, there is now a Regional Inter-agency Committee which met Aug. 16 and did settle the height of the Garrison Dam. On this Com- mittee besides the Federal agencies are four Governors (Montana, Colo- rado, Nebraska and Missouri) ap- pointed by Chairman Sharpe, Gov- ernor of South Dakota, of the in- formal Missouri River States Com- mittee, organized in 1942.
Secretary I ekes, in charge of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Mines, the Geological
Planning and Civic Comment
Survey, the General Land Office, the Grazing Service, the Bonne- ville Power Administration, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the National Park Service, all created by Congress and involved in River Valley programs, claims that they already receive coordinated di- rection from the Secretary of the Interior. He points out that the Missouri Valley is composed entirely of States which entered the Union as public land States and some of which still contain large areas of public lands and extensive Indian reservations; that the solution of one regional problem (TVA) is not necessarily the exact solution for all others. He proposes a Bill to pro- vide a general pattern of authorities under which the citizens of any valley may, through their repre- sentatives in Congress, decide that their valley should be brought under the plan. Coordination between the . various valley authorities would be provided through a National River Basin Development Board, com- posed of the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture, the Chief of Engi- neers of the War Department, and the single administrators of each of the valley authorities, who would report to the President through the Secretary of the Interior. Secretary I ekes is of the opinion that under S 555, the experience, ability and wisdom of the many established Federal agencies now operating in the Missouri Valley on going re- source development programs, would, to some extent, be scrapped. In- deed, he claims that the TVA owes much of its success to the technical advice and financial assistance of the bureaus in the Interior Depart-
ment. He would require the valley authorities, wherever possible, to utilize the experience, ability and facilities of these existing agencies. In addition to the single administra- tor of each valley, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, Secretary I ekes advocates an advisory board which would con- sist of one representative of each State in the region, to be appointed by the President, after consultation with the Governors, and four repre- sentatives at large appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The Izaak Walton League ob- jects to the composition of the Advisory Committee set up by the Murray Bill as being composed of representatives of interests with axes to grind. Perhaps the Advisory Board proposed by Secretary I ekes would escape this criticism though there is no provision to make sure that conservation would be recog- nized in the selection of board mem- bers.
There is certainly no unanimity of opinion in the Missouri Valley. One variation of the proposals is put forth by a leading planner in the region, who would set up by Act of Congress a Missouri Valley Ad- visory Board or Council which would serve as a sort of regional planning board with advisory and technical functions. Plans for de- velopment of natural resources of the Valley would be prepared by ex- isting Federal and state agencies. Provision would be made for each State to present its own plans in ample time for consideration by the other States and by the operative and administrative Federal or state
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Planning and Civic Comment
agencies. This planning board would act as a unifying agent without de- stroying or injuring the existing Federal agencies, which, within the limits permitted by Congress, it is claimed, have operated efficiently.
Whether, in the end, Congress will enact some form of the Murray Bill, or some form of the flexible pattern proposed by Secretary I ekes, under which an MVA will be established, or whether, through voluntary co- operation, the waters of the Missouri Valley will be controlled and de- veloped under existing agencies, as already authorized in part by Con- gress; or whether some entirely new plan will be adopted ; there are a few principles which advocates of con- servation would like to see in- corporated in the plans and ad- ministration of the river develop- ment.
The APCA has long claimed that any comprehensive water program should include in the beneficial uses, conservation of scenic and recrea- tional streams and lakes, free from injury caused by construction of works. We are in agreement with the Izaak Walton League and the National Parks Association that any enabling legislation should specifi- cally prohibit the construction of any dams or similar works in any of the National Parks or wilderness areas, and should limit the flooding out of existing wildlife refuges except where a satisfactory agreement can be reached with the administrative agency for replacement with equally suitable areas. The League, in its testimony before the Senate Sub- Committee on Commerce, cited the various proposals to dam the Yel- lowstone. Over a period of forty
years, proposals to commercialize Lake Yellowstone in the Park, have all been fought strenuously by the APCA and other conservation or- ganizations— so far successfully.
We share, too, the skepticism of the Izaak Walton League over the unalloyed benefits of multiple-pur- pose dams. The effectiveness of flood control measures is frequently diminished by accompanying power development. Irrigation and navi- gation are quite opposed in the management of water. It is a pipe dream to think that we can have maximum benefit for all of these purposes in a single project. Any coordinating agency or board will have to choose which of the ob- jectives should be served in a specific proposal. If we incorporate the conservation of natural scenery, wildlife and recreation facilities in the acknowledged panel of ob- jectives in comprehensive water programs, there will be some areas in which these purposes alone should be served, where no dams should be erected. We are in accord with the soil conservation programs and silt control which may modify needs for dams and certainly would prolong the life of essential reservoirs. If any enabling legislation is adopted these safeguards should be included in the provisions. If no new agencies are created, the existing agencies should incorporate these principles in their separate and joint programs.
And now, after the momentous dis- coveries of science made known in August of 1945, it may be that the economy of water power will not be so apparent, though we have no present reason to suppose that flood control and irrigation will not con-
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Planning and Civic Comment
tinue to be important. These have already been authorized by Con- gress in the Missouri River Valley,
and continuing appropriations are all that is necessary to ensure the realization of existing plans.
Fall Conference on City and Regional Planning
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announces that its ninth annual Conference on City and Regional Planning will be held from October 22 to November 2, 1945. Sponsored jointly by the Institute and the American Society of Plan- ning Officials, it will be open to men and women who have had practical experience in planning or in a related professional field, including planning technicians, members of state or municipal planning commissions and housing authorities, and staff mem- bers of engineering or public works departments.
Seminars will be held each morn- ing and afternoon, beginning Mon- day, October 22, and will cover principles and techniques of plan- ning and planning legislation and administration. Emphasis will be placed on technical and administra- tive procedures and the application of approved planning standards rather than on a generalized discus- sion of the various planning prob- lems for which solutions are needed.
The staff for the Conference will consist of Frederick J. Adams, Pro- fessor of City Planning; Flavel Shurtleff, Associate Professor of
Planning Legislation and Adminis- tration; Homer Hoyt, Associate Professor of Land Economics; and Roland B. Greeley, Assistant Pro- fessor of Regional Planning. Visit- ing lecturers on special topics will assist in the conduct of the seminars.
The fee for the two weeks' Con- ference is $50. Applications should be sent to Professor Frederick J. Adams, Division of City Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Cambridge 39, Massachu- setts, not later than October 1, 1945.
Following the two weeks' Con- ference, a special ten-week training course will be held during which specific projects will be developed in the drafting room, supplemented by library research and round-table discussions. This course, together with the Fall Conference, will be similar in scope to the short training course given at M.I.T. during the spring of 1944, except that partic- ular emphasis will be given this year to problems of urban redevelop- ment. Those interested in the train- ing course should write to Professor Adams at M.I.T., for further infor- mation.
58
Commentaries
Oregon has set up a Postwar Re- adjustment and Development Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. Victor P. Morris, with E. B. MacNaugbton as Vice-Chairman. The first biennial report covered the period from May 15, 1943 to December 31, 1944. It was estimated that there might be 130,000 unemployed when the war contracts were cancelled and the veterans re- turned. For a program of public works, it was reported, that at the end of 1944 there were cash and reserves of $62,608,- 699 available, that authorized projects of $214,192,189 and tentative projects of $109,615,989 would contribute to a total possible program of $413,- 416,877. Further, it appeared from surveys and confidential files that free enterprise would have $150,000,000 available for new business structures, expansion, home construction and for the purchase of appliances. For those who cannot find suitable jobs there was $61,000,000 in the trust fund of the Un- employment Compensation Commission for eligible claimants with maximum benefits of $15 a week for 16 weeks. In the case of veterans, if no suitable job could be found, $20 a week for 52 weeks would be paid.
The Highway Commission, antici- pating that Federal Aid funds would be available (authorized by the Public Roads Act of 1944), held hearings in the counties so that a state-highway pro- gram could be quickly put in motion when money is available.
New industries are being planned for Oregon; at least seven nationally- advertised concerns propose establishing branch plants in Oregon, five have al- ready acquired sites and two others are negotiating. Oregon expects its share of Federal projects in navigation, flood control, irrigation, rural electrification, forestry and public buildings.
page Technical Report, entitled A Study of Rural Sidewalks. Accidents to pedes- trians on rural highways would indicate that some provision should be made for those who walk. Detailed plans for construction and methods of financing are given. It is claimed that rural side- walks in Oregon have proved a real benefit and have definitely indicated that rural sidewalks are worth while. It is the intention of the Depart- ment to make extensive bejore-and-after studies of all existing rural sidewalk facilities to the end that certain mone- tary values may be developed.
The Oregon State Highway Commis- sion has published an illustrated sixty-
The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society presents an impressive illustrated Report on The Anthony Wayne Memorial Parkway Project in Ohio. The year 1945 marks the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Greene Ville by Major-General Anthony Wayne and the Indians of the Maumee Valley and their allies. It was this treaty that opened southern and central Ohio to settlement by the new Americans pushing across the Appala- chian Mountains. In 1943, a joint Legislative Committee, composed of ten members, was created by the 95th General Assembly to cooperate with the Anthony Wayne Memorial Association for various projects including the An- thony Wayne Memorial Parkway, ex- tending from Cincinnati north to Toledo along the military routes of General Wayne and the prior expeditions of Generals Harmar and St. Clair. The Parkway would touch Hamilton, Eaton, Greenville, Fort Recovery, Lebanon, Xenia, Piqua, Fort Loramie, St. Marys, Van Wert, Defiance, Napoleon, Maumee, and Perryburg, with extensions to De- troit and Fort Wayne out of the State. M. M. Quaife is President of the An- thony Wayne Memorial Association and Harlow Lindley, Chairman of the Ohio Executive Committee of the Associa- tion.
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Planning and Civic Comment
Elisabeth M. Herliby, Chairman of the State Planning Board of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, has sent us a Report on Map Making in Three Easy Stages, issued in July of 1945. In the Introduction she declares that "An accurate map of .a community is the most effective tool possible with which to implement planning or zoning studies." The State Planning Board also spon- sored a bill to provide better rapid transit service for East Boston and the Logan Airport which became an Act through the signature of Governor Tobin July 25, 1945. The Legislature also ap- proved a bond issue for the develop- ment of the Airport. The improved transit will not only bring the airport within easy and convenient reach of the patrons of the various airplane routes but also of the many hundreds of workers who will be engaged in the ad- ministration building and about the field.
V. B. Stanbery, Chief of the Technical Staff of the California State Reconstruc- tion and Reemployment Commission, which has issued so many excellent publications in the last two years, writes that the California Legislature at its 1945 session voted a budget of some $327,000 for the next biennium. Cali- fornia is now facing one of the most acute population and employment prob- lems of any of the States. The Com- mission cooperated with the League of California Municipalities to secure the passage of the California Urban Re- development Act. In the July, 1944 P&CC, an account was presented of the excellent Report on Urban Redevelop- ment Legislation, prepared by Reginald Johnson, Chairman of the Regional Planning and Development Section of Town Hall, with the aid of a grant from the Haynes Foundation.
The Tennessee State Planning Com- mission has issued a very valuable com- pilation of Tennessee Planning Legisla- tion 1935-1945, including texts of the State and Regional Planning Act passed in 1935, the County Zoning Act,
passed in 1935 and amended in 1941, the Regional Subdivision Control Acts of 1935, the Municipal Zoning Act of 1935, the Municipal Subdivision Control Act of 1935, the Community Planning Act of 1939, the Airport Zoning Act of 1945, and the Urban Redevelopment Act of 1945.
John Elmer Dalton has prepared a History of the Location of the State Capital in South Dakota, issued by The Governmental Research Bureau of the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. It appears that from the time Dakota Territory was created in 1861, there was competition for the capital. When the area was divided into the States of North and South Dakota in 1889, the fight still continued and Pierre won at the polls, but for 25 years thereafter, efforts were made at every session of the Legislature to move the capital. Finally in 1907 the corner stone of a fine new Capitol was laid and the building oc- cupied in 1910. The construction of an office annex was completed in 1932. There is a pioneer flavor in this struggle for the location of the capital in one of our 48 States.
The Chamber of Commerce of Zanes- ville, Ohio has issued a mimeographed bulletin on Proposed Pay-As-You-Go Plan for the Financial and Physical Re- habilitation of Zanesville, which reminds us that an unusually large number of inquiries from smaller cities and towns has been received concerning Pay-As- You-Go. Evidently this brand of sol- vency is going to be popular — at least for local governments.
Mel Scott, Executive Director of the Citizens' Planning Council of Greater San Jose, in summing up the accom- plishments of the Council since it was or- ganized in September of 1943, lists studies in family welfare, a conference on prevention of juvenile delinquency, an exhibition on Neighborhoods of To- morrow (See April, 1945 P&CC), prepa- ration of a Report on Public Health
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Planning and Civic Comment
Services, issuance of two Reports on Downtown Parking, a Report on the Public Library, compilation of a list of historic landmarks, incorporation in the program of the San Jose Adult Center of ten lectures on studies carried on and stimulated by the Council, survey of the Japanese quarter, a study of the func- tions of each county department, pro- gram for County-wide soil conserva- tion, and a plan for working out a system of census tracts for the county.
Henry R. Berg, Executive Secretary oj the City Planning Commission oj Seattle, under the Chairmanship of Walter L. Wyckoff, has sent us a Report on the Proposed Public Buildings Area issued in May of 1945. Harland Bartholomew, who had been a consultant of the City of Seattle in 1923 during the preparation of the zoning ordinance, conferred with the Commission and inspected the sites and plans. The City Planning Com- mission recommends an area bounded by 3d and 5th Avenues and Jefferson and Columbia streets — an area in which the present City-County Building is already situated. King County, the State of Washington and the Federal Govern- ment have all been questioned as to the extent of cooperation which the city of Seattle may expect. The American Planning and Civic Association has long urged the Federal and state governments to locate their public buildings in accordance with a Master City Plan. We agree with the Seattle Planning Commission that a public buildings area should have dignity, beauty and a suitable approach.
L. F. Eppicb, Chairman oj the Denver Planning Commission, writes that de- tailed plans and specifications are being prepared for the north five miles of the new North-South Valley Highway which follows the Valley of the South Platte River. There is also a plan for the widening of Market Street which will help redeem the old business section of the City and provide a direct con- nection from the Valley Highway.
Lawrence E. Hovik, Director oj Plan- ning jor the Chamber oj Commerce oj Lincoln, Nebraska, has prepared a Pre- liminary Investigation with Comments and Recommendations for Planning Lincoln. He looks forward to a Master Plan for 1960 to be followed by a de- velopment program for achievement.
The Dallas Morning News has re- printed from special articles in its columns three pamphlets — prepared by members of the News staff, Proud oj Dallas? See its Slums! written by Allen Quinn; Dallas Slums, written by Alonzo Wasson; and The Negro Problem, written by Barry Bishop (who reported the Saint Louis Citizens Planning Confer- ence for the News). The Dallas News, under the inspired leadership of George B. Dealey, President of the Company, has encouraged civic improvement and utilization of planning techniques to make Dallas a city in which Americans like to live, work and play. At the in- vitation of Mayor Woodall Rodgers, the American Planning and Civic Association expects next April to hold its Citizens Conference on Planning in Dallas.
Vancouver's Plan is the title of a Re- port for the utilization of war housing projects located at Vancouver, Wash. At the beginning of the war, Vancouver was a quiet little city of 18,000 people with some 6,000 homes. Then came the Kaiser shipyards and a great influx of workers from all over the country. A Housing Authority was set up and the Federal Government built eight great projects totaling 12,350 family units and 10,000 dormitory units, occupying in all 1,950 acres of land. The concern of the community is with the 1,000 perma- nent type homes, schools, shopping centers, community buildings and a network of streets and utilities, after the temporary houses are cleared away as required by law. The community pro- poses that the disposition of the prop- erties be controlled by local agencies that understand local conditions and that the property be released for private use as
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Planning and Civic Comment
the growth of the community requires. W. K. Peery, Executive Director of the Housing Authority, Zeno Katterle, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Joshua Vogel, Planning Consultant of the Association of Washington Cities, and 5. P. Lehman, M.D., District Health Officer join in presenting the Plan.
The National Housing Agency under the administration of John B. Bland/or d, Jr., prepared for the Conference of the United Nations in San Francisco, Cali- fornia in April 1945, an excellent 36- page pamphlet on War Housing in the United States. He cites Vanport, Oregon, now the second largest city in the State, where 40,000 Americans now live in a temporary city built from the ground up in little over a year; the sprawling com- munity west of Detroit where 20,000 workers live in dormitories, brown frame buildings, and odd-looking "expanded" trailers without wheels, to serve the great bomber plant at Willow Run; and Arlington Farms in Virginia, where 7,500 "Government girls" live in 10 dormitories spread over 93 acres ad- joining the great Pentagon Building. According to the statement, private capital has supplied about four billion dollars and public funds over two bil- lion. In this way four million essential in-migrant war workers and their families, nine million in all, were to be housed. Most of the job had to be done after Pearl Harbor. FHA helped to finance wartime housing construction by private builders. The huge job of processing all priorities for building ma- terials for private construction was as- signed to FHA. FPHA took on the toughest job, built entire cities, erected 160,000 temporary dormitory units, and covered acres with 250,000 temporary dwellings. The local Housing Authori- ties built 34 percent of FPHA projects and are maintaining 55 percent.
The National Committee on Housing has issued a Study on Planning Neigh- borhood Shopping Centers. The study, made by Marcel Villaneuva, A. I. A., stresses a problem which has long been
recognized by planners but which none the less continues to exist in old and new communities, — that most communities are over-zoned and over-built so far as neighborhood stores are concerned. The author maintains that commercial cen- ters should be planned in terms of the purchasing power of the population to be served. In view of the high mortality of retail businesses — annually since 1900 from 250,000 to 450,000 have failed — it would seem that business, real estate and the community at large would profit by better planning. In the Foreword, Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman, Chairman of the National Committee on Housing, expresses appreciation to the Field Foundation, Inc. of New York and Chicago, which made the study possible.
Professor H. W. Shepherd, Division of Landscape Design, at the University of California, writes from Berkeley: "As you may know, in 1940 a committee, headed by Dr. Monroe E. Deutsch, suc- cessfully promoted a $125,000 pay-as- you-go for the purpose of acquiring the civic center area immediately east of the City Hall in Berkeley. Notwithstanding that the issue was for a plaza and central open space, a group of well-meaning and outstanding citizens of Berkeley have proposed the construction of a Berkeley Art Center as a War Memorial on the site of the recently acquired civic cen- ter." This is an old complaint. If Cen- tral Park, New York, had been used for all the public and semi-public buildings proposed for it, they would be standing three-deep today. The American Plan- ning and Civic Association has always held that land once dedicated for park or open space should not be used as the site for buildings. The principal motive for so appropriating land is economy; but the price is far too high when such use reduces the all-too-scanty public open spaces which most cities possess.
Miss Bess Goodykoontz, Assistant Commissioner of Education, has sent us a pamphlet, Leaflet No. 57 in Know Your School Series, entitled Know Your Community, as a basis for understanding
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Planning and Civic Comment
the Schools' Problems. The suggested lessons cover geographical, historical, social, and economic problems, with a reference to Planning Commissions under the section on Housing. In the general bibliography there is listed Com- munity Planning, A Manual of practical suggestions for citizen participation, prepared by Wayne D. Hey decker and Phillip W. Shatts for the New York Regional Plan Association in 1938.
The Citizens' Housing Council oj New York has issued a 16-page folder en- titled — and there goes another SLUM! which reports current progress, a pro- gram for the next eight years, and the new yardstick for housing.
The Louisville Area Development As- sociation under the title of Action to Date, presents the highlights from Re- ports of Committees, including a traffic analysis and expressway plan, proposals for floodwalls, a better general hospital, housing, recreation, union terminals, public buildings, smoke abatement, schools, jail and workhouse.
(LTc)
From Leonard W. Mayo, Chairman, and Burns Weston, Executive Director, of the Postwar Planning Council of Greater Cleveland comes a 12-page pam- phlet called Rolling Along, which sets forth a program for democratic planning for the 55 municipalities, 6 townships, 34 boards of education, 14 library boards, a county government, a Metro- politan Park Board, a Metropolitan Housing Authority, and more than 100 private agencies which the Council is serving. There are panels on planning for transportation, public works, labor- management, public finance and taxa- tion, interracial relations, and returning
servicemen.
(LTo)
Raymond A. Fisher, Chairman of the Course Planning Committee of the Car- negie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, has issued a Report on Community Plan- ning and Integration in Allegheny
County in the form of a demonstration course in community planning. The Report was sponsored by The Allegheny Conference on Community Develop- ment, The Pittsburgh Regional Plan- ning Association, the Pittsburgh Chap- ter of the American Institute of Archi- tects, and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The faculty was assembled from the staffs of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Institute of Technology, with additional authorities from the professions, regional planning associations, city planning commissions, housing authorities, and from business and industry. Ladislas Segoe, Planning Consultant, supervised the activities of the 53 students. The first phase covered the general aspects of planning, the second planning tools and their uses and the third a study of a local community. The students expressed the opinion that they had derived considerable under- standing of community problems and planning techniques from the 1944 course. There is a demand for further courses.
The American Transit Association has issued the 1945 Transit Fact Book, the third annual summary of basic data and trends in the transit industry in the U. S. In 1944, for the first time since the war, operating expenses increased more than operating revenue. The in- dustry carried a billion more passengers than in 1943, reaching a total of 23,017,000,000. To meet the expected decline in traffic, as war agencies are demobilized, Management recognizes that they must provide a type of service that will attract and permanently hold as large a proportion as possible of the war-induced transit riding. The exten- sive financial figures cover electric street railways, elevated and subway lines, interurban electric railways, local motor bus lines and trolley coach lines.
Another publication by the Associa- tion is called Moving People in Modern Cities , and takes into account many modern planning principles. The carry- ing capacity of automobiles is compared with mixed traffic of automobiles and
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Planning and Civic Comment
buses and with street cars. Another comparison which challenges attention is the estimate that in the Holland Tunnel, where there are no grade cross- ings and no weaving is permitted, 1500 vehicles per lane per hour can be cleared, whereas on city streets, with grade crossing interruption, only about 900 vehicles per lane per hour can be cleared. Capacity of a single lane in passengers per hour shows 1,575 passen- gers in automobiles on surface streets, 2,625 on elevated highways, 9,000 passengers in buses on surface streets, 13,500 in street cars on surface streets, 20,000 in street cars in subway, 40,000 in local subway trains and 60,000 in express subway trains. Conclusion: Through the development of transit facilities and their utilization to a greater extent than at present, a com- munity may most economically achieve needed improvements of traffic con- ditions.
Sarah C. Saunders declares in Do- mestic Commerce for July: The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce realizing two years ago that businessmen in various communities would form the leadership in planning for full employ- ment and profitable business after the war, issued Community Action for Post- war Jobs and Profits, designed to suggest to groups of businessmen how they might proceed with community postwar planning. Committees by the hundreds all over the United States have com- pleted their plans for postwar develop- ment and are only waiting for materials and manpower to carry them out. Proof of this statement lies in the returns to the Department of Commerce Field Offices in answer to requests that users of the report send in a review of their accomplishments. Groups of business- men, such as chambers of commerce, CED committees, and service clubs have taken the lead in initiating plans and are standing by to push them to completion.
Harlan P. Kelsey has made a Report to the Mayor and City Council on Im- proving Marion, South Carolina, with
sections on Housing, Zoning and Slums, Streets and Highways, Parks and Play- grounds, Trees, Civic Center, Municipal Airport.
Normal N. Gill, Editor, has prepared a 80-page Annual Consolidated Report issued each year by the Municipal Reference Library. In gay colors, its cover bears the title Milwaukee is Ready, with graphs showing 8 million dollars available for plans for Public works; 12 million dollars as of January 1, 1945 for construction and 32 million in funds for the 5-year period from 1936 -1950. This program is the result of the work of the Program Technical Com- mittee created by the Milwaukee Com- mon Council in 1941.
The Corpus Christi Housing Authority has made a Report to the Planning Commission under the title Shelter Problems. It contains a series of maps showing population density, residence of juvenile delinquents, points of residence in police cases, points of fire calls, with a final statement that 60 percent of each dollar contributed by the healthy areas in the city is now spent for protective services in the blighted areas. Other maps show building activity areas, racial distribution, utilities. The final sen- tence is significant: "An informed public, kept constantly in touch with housing problems and our planning program, is a necessary accessory to any program, present or future, to provide more ade- quate shelter in Corpus Christi."
The National Recreation Association has issued a bulletin to the effect that the Postwar Planning and Housing Committee of the New York State Associa- tion of Real Estate Boards in its report of June 1, 1944 included a section on the Land Use Pattern of the Future — The Master Plan. After discussing planning for transportation, industrial, comer- cial and residential areas, the report covers planning for parks and recreation areas. The realtors of New York State
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Planning and Civic Comment
evidently see eye to eye with progressive planners, as witness the following:
In a properly conceived master plan, the parks and recreation areas should be so integrated with the residential com- munities that they serve every age group and increase the amenities and livability of every neighborhood. Children in every block should have available play areas. In every community consisting of several neighborhoods clustered around a school, there should be playfields and a park large enough for football or baseball fields, as well as recreation areas for adults.
A master plan for parks and recreation areas is not a dream; it is absolutely neces- sary to promote sound, stable real estate values. In the future, realtors and building promoters who crowd as many houses in a given area as possible and provide no play space, will be unable to sell their houses. The urge to get more space is one of the chief causes of the movement to the suburbs. Central cities, to compete with the outlying sections, must open up their dense masses of buildings. It will be profitable to tear down some of the build- ings in many old areas in order to give more light and air and recreation land to those that remain. . . .
The future development of every city should be in accordance with a Master Plan which utilizes the best land planning practices for all types of land use and city living that make up the community so that home areas, in particular, will have the benefits of adequate light and air, play- grounds, community centers and freedom from traffic hazards. AH new subdivisions and all plans for public works should be coordinated with the city's Master Plan of future land uses.
The National Housing Agency in June issued a significant 12-page folder called Housing : A Community Job — What Citizens can do to make tbeir Communities better Places for Living, which really lifts a phrase for the announced aims of the APCA. Likewise, according to the philoso- phy of the APCA, the NHA claims that "Your Community is what you make it.'* Adopting a new technique, the NHA outlines the
right road and the wrong road. On the right road it is declared that:
A building boom might be the best thing that could happen to this community of yours. It could mean: good homes to meet the needs of all families; houses that measure up to good standards, that pro- vide adequate air, light and space; im- provement and renovation of structurally sound houses that have fallen into dis- repair but are in good neighborhoods; neighborhoods that grow according to in- telligent plans with expansion and im- provement of community facilities, modern schools, green parks, health clinics, shop- ping centers, and freedom from traffic congestion; rebuilding of neglected, dis- integrating neighborhoods, stopping tragic waste.
Before housing comes planning and so:
Urge that your planning agency, or your community officials, formulate a compre- hensive plan for your community, incor- porating its housing needs and goals. . . . Slum clearance and urban redevelopment can be effective only when they are part of an over-all plan covering in addition to housing, such local problems as trans- portation, industrial development, recrea- tion, education, health, and other com- munity facilities. Property values decline and neighborhoods deteriorate when over- all planning for proper use of land is neglected.
Let us hope that citizens take the advice of NHA.
The Curtis Publishing Company issued recently a 72-page impressive Urban Housing Survey, illustrated with sketches, graphs and tables. The survey was based on 4007 inter- views with heads of families, 1798 with men and 2209 with women. Of these 43 percent were owners and 57 percent renters. The purpose of the survey was to measure the nature and size of the urban market for home ownership and for moderni- zation and repair of existing homes,
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Planning and Civic Comment
indicate probable timing for these activities, determine the degree of knowledge and acceptance of new products or developments in the urban housing field, ascertain the urban family's opinion of the build- ing industry and its methods, sug- gest the proper type of merchandis- ing approach to the urban housing market, and measure the nature and size of the urban market for house- hold appliances and home furnish- ings. A great deal of detailed opinion is set forth. Realtors, builders, bankers, architects and dealers take notice.
Planning /or Montreal is the sub- ject of a 60-page Report, replete with maps and illustrations, issued by the Department oj City Planning, Aime Cousineau, Director. This is a preliminary report for the Master Plan. It is explained that a pro- vincial statute passed in April of 1941 permitted the City to create a Gity Planning Department and to add to it an advisory commission composed of at least seven and not more than fifteen members. The Division of Building Inspection was transferred from the Public Works Department to the City Planning Department. All matters pertaining to buildings, including zoning, are now under one direction. The sub- jects of traffic, zoning revision, housing, are discussed and a pre- liminary outline for a Master Plan is presented.
E. G. Faludi, Planning Director oj the Town Planning Consultants, Limited, has sent us A Report on Existing Conditions prepared as Base
Material for Planning the City oj Hamilton, issued by the City Plan- ning Committee and the Town Planning Consultants, in January of 1945. The Report considers the basic factors, includes livelihood and population studies, describes the land use and street patterns, ana- lyzes traffic, proposes by-pass and crosstown routes and parking facili- ties. Transportation, transit and public utilities are studied. Among the recommendations are the need for defining a metropolitan area, the restoration of declining residential areas, expanded recreational facili- ties, selection of school sites, im- proved cultural facilities, location of new industrial areas, harbor improve- ment, development of railway net- work, revamping of the street pat- tern, reorganization of public trans- portation, and a zoning law to im- plement the Master Plan.
Tracy L. le May, Commissioner of City Planning and City Surveyor of Toronto, Ontario, has sent us the third annual report of the City Planning Board of Toronto, which presents maps and photographs to indicate progress and problems con- nected with residential areas, inner green belt, limited access highways, municipal parking, the downtown area, and the program for 1945.
The July-August Planner, issued by the Detroit City Plan Commission, announces that a riverfront plan for the location of four major river- front recreation areas and a river- front drive between Hastings and the eastern city limits on the Detroit
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Planning and Civic Comment
River has been approved by the Commission as a long-term develop- ment program. It is recognized that enough river frontage must be available to meet the needs of port activities and industrial uses, but it is estimated that of the seven miles of riverfront between Third Street and Alter Road, only 2.3 miles are needed for industrial or port ac- tivities. The remaining areas will provide fine recreational oppor- tunities, and these developments will make certain adjacent areas desirable for residential use.
In the 1944 Annual Report of the Chicago City Plan Commission, proj- ects heretofore publicized in P&CC (See October, 1943 issue) are sum- marized. In addition to the per- tinent subjects of public works, thoroughfares, airports, housing, re- development of blighted area, in- dustrial and commercial survey, plan of park and play area, there is a final conclusion of such great in- terest to P&CC readers, that we quote it in full:
A review of the progress achieved dur- ing 1944 in the work of the Chicago Plan Commission brings the encouraging im- pression that the emerging Comprehensive City Plan is steadily approaching the stage where greater emphasis must be given to the wider publicizing of the uses and purposes of the Plan. The integration of the various segments of the Plan makes easier and more effective the demonstra- tion of the advantages that accrue from a comprehensive approach.
The enthusiastic interest of people in community associations, service clubs, and civic organizations suggests that con- sideration could be given to a well- conceived, formal program of public relations in order that an increasingly favorable climate of public opinion and action in support of the Comprehensive Plan for Chicago might be encouraged.
Perhaps Chicago, which led in the early days of city planning with Wacker's Manual and the program of citizen education put into effect by Walter D. Moody, may again prove a pioneer.
L. Deming Tilton, Director of Planning for the San Francisco City Planning Commission, sends us the initial issues of Planning San Fran- cisco, a monthly bulletin of the San FranciscoCityPIanningCommission. On the cover Mayor Lapham de- clares that the City Planning Com- mission is to be congratulated for undertaking this publication further to inform the citizens of San Fran- cisco on the development of the Master Plan. The substantial prog- ress the Commission has made on the Master Plan in the past year augurs well for the future. The second issue presents a graphic re- port of the Land Use Report and reports that on the Central Pas- senger Terminal the City Planning Commission is requested to hold meetings with the Department of Engineering of San Francisco, the engineers of the Public Utilities Commission of San Francisco and the engineering staff of the Cali- fornia Railroad Commission.
Cbauncey J. Hamlin, Chairman of the Niagara Frontier Planning Board, has sent us an interim report on va- rious planning projects, including the continued opposition to the St Lawrence Seaway and Power Proj- ect (based on one of the most com- plete libraries and files in the State) ; progress on plans for a regional
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Planning and Civic Comment
airport; progress studies on through ways; Erie County water supply system; flood control on Cattaraugus and Seajaquada Creeks; refuge har- bors; Niagara County erosion, Wil- son Harbor, Veterans' Hospital in Erie County, and, finally a pro- posal for a United Nations' Council Headquarters on Navy Island in the Niagara River.
and Development Commission be created, that a state building code be adopted and that certain educa- tional measures be put into effect.
The Iowa Postwar Rehabilitation Commission has issued a 108-page Report to the Governor and General Assembly. The Commission is under the chairmanship of Don L. Berry, with Barr Keshlear as Secretary. Philip Elwood acted as Counselor and Rodney Q. Selby as Executive Director. The Commission recom- mends among other items that a state agency pass upon the timing of state public works, that state consultation and advice be available for cities and towns, that Congress be asked to announce a definite policy on Federal Aid and be informed that Iowa does not favor Federal Aid for local projects, that the Legislature empower cities and other local governments to levy a tax sufficient to defray the expense of planning improvements in advance and to accumulate surpluses for postwar projects, that a twelve-year highway program be adopted on the pay-as- you-go plan, that the State Conser- vation Commission program and other needed improvements be put into action as soon as men are avail- able, that soil conservation measures be encouraged, that certain health and anti-pollution measures be taken, that a permanent State Resources
Rodney Gibson, Planning Engineer of the Omaha City Planning Com- mission has issued two chapters of the City Plan. The first is on Population. It is explained that the proposed distribution of population would result in a filling in of the present City boundaries to the extent that the gross density figures would change from about 9.1 per acre in 1940 to slightly under ten per acre, and maximum gross den- sity figures would not exceed the present levels. The closing counsel is this: "If Omaha is to maintain its 1940 population, it must offer more opportunities for employment, it must be a better place in which to live." The chapter on Land Use and Zoning contains an excellent state- ment on objectives and policies to be applied, and, as in most other planning reports these days, a plea for community understanding and cooperation.
From John T. Howard, Planning Director of the Cleveland City Plan- ning Commission, comes a 32-page popular pamphlet on Places Jor Planning in Cleveland, with stand- ards for public recreation areas. Not only is this an excellent primer for Cleveland; its concrete sugges- tions are helpful to other cities. Many inquiries come in for just this sort of information.
68
Ralph Budd on Railroads
EDITOR'S NOTE. — At an anniversary program of the Farm Question Box on Radio Station KOA on July 14, 1945, Ralph Budd, President of the Burlington Lines and a valued member of the American Planning and Civic Association, made an excellent ad- dress on a national hook-up. With Mr. Budd's permission, we have condensed his speech for the benefit of readers of PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT.
We are extremely fortunate to have in the United States the most harmonious balance between in- dustry and agriculture to be found anywhere. Fortunate, too, that ours is the most nearly self-contained of any country in the world, and that it vastly outproduces every other Nation. The occupation of farming as it is now practiced in this country is as highly technical as is any other industry.
Whatever may be done to im- prove the quality, quantity and cer- tainty of farm production, there will always be the problem of getting the produce from the farm where it is grown to points of consumption, often far away. Railroads are the most important carriers, accounting as they do for about 70 percent of the total movement of freight in this country.
No other country has ever had a national system of railroads which can compare in efficiency, cheapness, or excellence of service, with that of the United States in peacetime, or a system which could carry the volume of traffic which has been handled by our railroads since 1940. They have not only provided at the same time most of the transport for two wars which extended to practically all parts of the earth, but they also have carried food and supplies in great quantities for our Allies. In- cidentally, vast quantities of rail- road rails, cars and locomotives were
among the things that have been provided to other countries to keep their railroads in operation.
We had at the outbreak of the war an excellent physical railroad plant, splendidly staffed. It has undergone severe strain in the past five years but it is still carrying an un- precedented load of traffic. Out of 1,400,000 railroad employees, 350,000 have joined the armed forces. I am keenly aware of the present inconveniences to travelers and regret them keenly. They are, of course, caused by the fact that the armies are returning from Europe and through redeployment, large numbers of troops are being moved westward to the Pacific war, es- sential business travel is heavy, and there is some vacation travel fol- lowing the long-established habit of going to resort areas in summer. Besides all this there is a consider- able movement of special groups of harvest hands and other workers from one part of the country to another.
In the postwar period, the first thing the carriers will do will be to resume the modernization and im- provement program which was in- terrupted when the war made it impossible to obtain the necessary materials or the men to apply them. Events have transpired so rapidly that it is well to recall that while an intensive railroad improvement pro- gram had been under way since
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1923, it was only a little over ten years ago that some of the things which have produced the most im- portant results in the history of the railroads first became available. Among these were new metal alloys, and Diesel locomotives. It should be kept in mind that since 1941 rail- road equipment building programs have been kept arbitrarily limited and such freight cars as have been built were of the older types, also that no passenger cars have been built at all.
Another new thing that has de- veloped in recent years, and its efficiency proved in actual tests, but which is not in regular use, is the radio for communication be- tween head and rear ends of trains, and between trains and wayside stations. We hope that such radio sets can be had in the near future.
In track work, which necessarily has been deferred, and in new tracks, use will be made of steel rail of better quality, and of better design than that formerly to be had. It will be extensively laid in tracks which have seen such heavy service since 1940,
In making these and other im- provements, not only will the pri- mary purpose for the railroads' existence, which is to give the best possible service to the public, be realized, but they will also make a very substantial contribution to the general postwar economy through wise expenditure of enormous sums of money. Their maintenance and improvement programs together should amount to three or three and one-half billions of dollars an- nually for several years, if funds can be made available to carry on
that amount of work. And that brings me to the really difficult question of where the money will come from. There are only two ways to get it. One is to earn it, and the other is to borrow. During the last five years railroad revenues have been large, but since men and materials have been unobtainable in the amounts needed, not all the desirable maintenance work has been done. The inability to do that work has resulted in a fictitiously large book showing of taxable in- come, and the railroads have paid .out for taxes most of this money, which otherwise would have been spent on maintenance. For the five years since 1940 railroad taxes will total more than seven billions of dollars. Railroad debt has been greatly reduced, which undoubtedly was desirable, and it would be un- fortunate again to go in debt to catch up on maintenance. It, there- fore, seems important from the standpoint of better railroad service and sound public policy that a way be found to use some of the earnings which were made during the time when wear and tear was greatest, in order to restore the physical con- dition of the properties as soon as practicable. This need has been recognized and a bill (S 21) has been introduced in Congress to ac- complish the purpose. The bill may require some revision, but in some way or other it seems to me vital that Congress provide a tax reform which will enable our railroads to retain for future use the upkeep money that should have been spent during the years of heaviest traffic. Railroad managements know what to do and how to provide better ser-
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vice than they have ever given be- fore. They are prepared to make the necessary improvements, but cooperation on the part of the legis- lators and regulators is necessary. If a great deal of Government money is spent in subsidies and encouraging expansion of less economical forms of transportation so that the total transportation plant of the country is made too large for peacetime needs, the total cost of transporta-
tion will be increased. Tax-eaters will be created at the expense of taxpayers.
The years ahead can see very great advancement in railroad travel and transport. All that is necessary is for management to have a fair, un- fettered field, and no favors or handicaps. I cannot help feeling that the American public will see the wisdom of such a policy.
Rail Leaders Plan for Peacetime Service'
WILLIAM M. JEFFERS, Chair- man of the Board, Union Pacific Lines: The railroads have survived a lot of tests. In the depths of the depression they produced stream- liners which helped change the country's thinking on passenger transportation. Pre-war freight schedules had been clipped 30 or 40 percent from earlier days. War has shown that nothing could take the place of rail transport. The same kind of imagination will be there after the war. The airplane is going to take some passenger business, but I do not anticipate that it will carry much freight and I think that smart fellows in the aviation busi- ness agree with that. But the nearer you can bring the West Coast — and that's the coming em- pire in this country — to the Mid- West and East, the more rail business you are going to develop, too. The railroads know how to do things, and given a fair break will do them.
METZMAN, President of the New York Central Railroad. The New York Central operates a fa- mous passenger station, Grand Cen- tral Terminal, used by the New York Central and New Haven Rail- roads. We railroads pay our security holders a return on the capital invested in it. The terminal prop- erty and franchises are assessed for tax purposes at nearly $100,000,000. Taxes for 1944 were $2,844,000. A few miles away about $50,000,000 in public funds has been spent for a great air terminal. Even larger sums are being spent to build an- other greater air terminal to serve New York City. These air terminals are tax free. In addition, the tax- payers will not get back their in- vestment money; charges to users are too low to liquidate the public investment.
*Quoted by Charles T. Lucey in The News, Wash- ington, August 7, 1945.
71
IN MEMORIAM
ROBERT STERLING YARD
On May 17 of this year Robert Sterling Yard passed away at his home in Washington at the age of 84. Stricken a year ago by serious illness, he had continued until a few weeks before his death to direct the affairs of The Wilderness Society of which he was President and Perma- nent Secretary and Editor of its magazine, The Living Wilderness. Prior to his official connection with The Wilderness Society he had been General Secretary of the National Parks Association which he or- ganized in 1919.
Mr. Yard came to Washington in 1915 as a member of the personal staff of the late Stephen T. Mather, then Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, in charge of national parks and other divisions of the In- terior Department. There was no National Park Service at the time and no funds for stimulating public interest in the administration and protection of the national parks and monuments which were assigned to three departments — Interior, War and Agriculture. Mr. Mather's ob- jective was to bring about the estab- lishment of a National Park Bureau for which former President J. Horace McFarland of our Association had worked for many years. The bureau was to unify management of the parks and related areas under one head. With characteristic energy and generosity, Mr. Mather built his own organization to promote the program he had undertaken. He had known Mr. Yard for nearly thirty years. They had met as fel-
low reporters on the New York Sun in the late eighties. Mr. Yard had been best man at Mr. Mather's wedding. They had kept constantly in touch with each other, although Mr. Yard's career was writing. He rose to the high position of Editor of the Century Magazine while Mr. Mather abandoned jour- nalism for a successful business career as a chemical manufacturer.
Knowing that Mr. Yard was not only an accomplished writer and editor but a lover of art and the beauties of Nature, Mr. Mather regarded him as an ideal associate to undertake the preparation of books, pamphlets and news releases designed to focus public interest in national parks and the need for a Government bureau charged with the single function of managing them and the national monuments established under the Lacey Act of 1906.
No time was lost in getting proj- ects under way. First, following a trip West to see several of the larger parks (including a ride through Yellowstone in one of the first auto- mobiles admitted there) Mr. Yard wrote the National Parks Portfolio. This beautiful series of booklets was financed by the western railroads and by Mr. Mather who supplied the cuts. Subsequent editions were in book form and the Portfolio was still in the list of Government best sellers when Pearl Harbor turned our attention to war. Other publica- tions by Mr. Yard were "The Book of the National Parks," still a
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standard work, and "The Top of the Continent" for younger readers. Wide distribution of the Portfolio and large issues of press releases ex- erted strong influence on legislation to establish the National Park Service, approved by President Wil- son on August 25, 1916.
In order to bring into service Mr. Yard's exceptional literary talents, Mr. Mather had supplemented a small Government salary with his own funds, but, due to the compli- cations arising from public and private paymasters, Congress pro- hibited this practice by a law, effective in 1919. This resulted in Mr. Yard's leaving the Interior Department, since no Government funds were available to pay him.
Mr. Yard decided to remain in Washington. He organized the Na- tional Parks Association and di- rected its affairs for many years. He was recognized as a conserva- tionist of broad sympathies and was in all of the fights in Congress to protect the national parks from
various forms of commercial exploi- tation. When he went to the Wilder- ness Society he continued his in- terest in the National Parks Associa- tion as a Trustee.
Mr. Yard earned a permanent place in national park history as one of the original Mather group en- gaged within Government service in the founding of the National Park Service, then as a writer and executive in fighting to maintain the sound principles and policies govern- ing the management of the park and monument system, and finally as a conservationist whose talents were available to all agencies engaged in the protection of the scenery, flora and fauna of our country.
Bob Yard, as he was affectionately known at the Cosmos Club and in literary and conservation circles, will be sorely missed, but he will long be remembered for his earnest devotion to the causes he supported and for his writings which have enriched national park literature.
—HORACE M. ALBRIGHT, President
CHARLES GORDON
1890-1945
The sudden death on May 3, 1945, of Charles Gordon, Managing Di- rector of the American Transit Association, meant the loss of a great leader in the field of trans- portation.
Mr. Gordon attended the Con- ference on Planning, held at St. Louis in June 1944, when he de- livered one of the main addresses, choosing as his subject, "A Modern City's Transportation Needs." He made an unusually favorable im- pression on the Association members
and delegates gathered there. He had previously addressed the Joint Conference on Planning held in Boston, in 1939 on the subject of Transportation as an Element in Urban Rehabilitation.
His broad conception of the re- lationship between local transpor- tation and city planning and his masterly presentation of his ideas for closer coordination between local transit officials, community planners and highways departments, brought him unusual acclaim at
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last year's Conference. He con- tinued to maintain a deep interest in the scope of the work of the Association until the date of his un- timely death.
Mr. Gordon had been identified with the transit industry almost continuously after he received his degree in engineering from the Uni- versity of Illinois in 1912. His first connection was with the Chicago Surface Lines which he served until 1923 when he became western editor of the business journals, Electric Railway Journal and Bus Trans- portation. During this period he became an advocate of the moderni- zation and improvement of local transportation facilities. In 1925 he moved to New York to become editor of Electric Railway Journal which afterwards became Transit Journal, and filled that post until 1929 when he was selected as the Managing Director of the American Transit Association.
He directed the research which produced the fast, silent streetcars now operating successfully in twenty cities. He was'also an enthusiast for the trolley coach which has done much to retain the advantages of electric transportation for the Amer- ican public.
The American Planning and Civic Association was deeply appreciative of the thorough understanding shown by Mr. Gordon in urging provision for public transportation in the plans for handling highway traffic in the future. Members who had the privilege of hearing his address in St. Louis, which is included among the papers published in the 1944 American Planningand Civic Annual, held him in high esteem. Civic leadership of the type displayed by Mr. Gordon is rare and the plan- ning movement has suffered a real loss in his death.
JACOB L. BABLER
Jacob L. Babler, philanthropist and former Republican national committeeman from Missouri, died on May 31, 1945 at the age of 75. Mr. Babler was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference on State Parks. He was reputed to have been one of Mis- souri's wealthiest men and gave the 1,800-acre Babler State Park in St.
Louis County to the State and set up a $2,000,000 trust fund for its maintenance and preservation. Mr. Babler had large property holdings including a forest and oil fields in Mexico.
Mr. Babler had been associated with the National Conference on State Parks since 1937 and was a generous contributor to its activities.
CHARLES L. GABLE
The death of Charles L. Gable, of the National Park Service, occurred on April 28, 1945, a few months after his retirement because of ill
health. Mr. Gable entered the Service in 1925 as Assistant Chief Investigator. He was appointed Chief of the Park Operators Division
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in 1936 and as Supervisor of Con- cessions in February 1944, the position he held immediately before his retirement. He had assisted in the organization of National Park Concessions, Inc., and served as a Director of that corporation from
the time of its establishment in 1941 until November 1943. For a number of years he was Vice Presi- dent and Trustee of the Welfare and Recreational Association of Public Buildings and Grounds, Washing- ton, D. C.
MISS MYRA LLOYD DOCK
A great Pennsylvania conser- vationist, Miss Dock died July llth at the age of 91 at her home near Caledonia, Pa. She served on the State Forestry Commission under three governors and was generally credited with having been the in- spiration for the beginning of Har- risburg's public improvement era in 1902.
Her enthusiasm was taken up by public-spirited citizens and the re- sult was the formation of the Muni- cipal League and the general cam- paign which started Harrisburg on its way as a city of parks, paved streets and kindred facilities.
As we go to press, word comes of the death of T. Glenn Phillips, of Detroit, Michigan, in August and Paul P. Cret, of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, in July; both eminent members of the American Planning and Civic Association and leaders is their respective fields of landscape architecture and architecture.
Sierra Club Directors Meet
William E. Colby, it was an- nounced, had served the Sierra Club for 45 years on the day of its Directors Meeting on May 5, 1945. As always, the June Sierra Club Bulletin contained many news items of interest and continued evidence that the Club exercises a wholesome influence for the preservation of unspoiled mountain country. Dun- can McDufFie was re-elected presi- dent; E. Stanley Jones, vice-presi- dent; William E. Colby, secretary; Walter L. Huber, treasurer; and Francis Farquhar, Editor of the Bulletin, fifth member of the Execu- tive Committee. Professor Joseph
N. LeConte was elected Honorary President. The following were re- elected Honorary Vice-Presidents : Horace M. Albright, Newton B. Drury, Willis Linn Jepson, Francois E. Matthes, J. Horace McFarland, John C. Merriam, Marion R. Par- sons, Robert G. Sproul, Donald B. Tresidder, Ray Lyman Wilbur and William H. Wright. Frederick Law Olmsted was elected an additional Honorary Vice-President in recog- nition of his splendid work in the interests of parks. These are indeed names to conjure with in the con- servation world!
75
Book Reviews
SON OF THE WILDERNESS, THE LIFE OF JOHN MUIR. Linnie Marsh Wolfe. Alfred A. Knopf. 1945. $3.50.
Linnie Marsh Wolfe has made a fine contribution in "Son of the Wilderness, The Life of John Muir." Muir himself left a modest book- shelf to posterity. All of his books are revealing and some of them autobiographical. In "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth" he told part of his own story. At the time of his death he had in prepara- tion a second volume of his auto- biography. Some of this material was incorporated in the two volume work "The Life and Letters of John Muir" by William Frederic Bade, printed in 1924. Though the letters are the backbone of Dr. Bade's book, Muir's life is sketched in to give continuity to the narrative. After Dr. Bade's untimely death, Mrs. Linnie Marsh Wolfe, at the re- quest of Muir's heirs, edited his un- published Journal under the title of "John of the Mountains." This book was issued in 1938, fourteen years after Dr. Bade's Life and Letters.
"The Life of John Muir" which Mrs. Wolfe presents in 1945, gives the reader a feeling of having walked and talked with John Muir. It does not quote extensively from his writ- ings, but it does tell of his wander- ings, his friends, his family, his opinions and in some detail about the final drama of Hetch Hetchy which Mrs. Wolfe declares to be:
That last controversy of Muir's public life . . . that supreme struggle that con- sumed the energies of his last dozen years, cut down his literary output by several books and shortened his life-span.
Muir, his causes and his writings belonged to the world. By scientists and literary men he was acknowl- edged, even in his lifetime, as one of the great men of America.
One realizes in reading Mrs. Wolfe's book that Muir was not, as some people seem to suppose, an impractical failure who took to the mountains as a sort of queer hobby. Even in his youth he was a success- ful inventor, mechanic and factory manager. He could have spent his life profitably in these enterprises. His work would have given him a re- spected place in the business world and a substantial financial reward; but how much poorer would the reading world have been! Even in middle life he took over the orchards of his wife's family and placed them on a firm paying basis. Again he proved that he could be a good businessman.
But his heart was not in the weary routine of management and money making. His treasured life Jay in the wider field of observation and interpretation of the forces of Nature, which made him at once a dependable scientist and a writer of great charm. His nature trips be- gan early. There was "A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf" and long years in his beloved Sierra — "Moun- tains of Light" he called them. There were trips to Alaska and to many other parts of the world. Al- ways he had the "seeing eye."
But perhaps for the readers of the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation Mrs. Wolfe's penetrating ac- count of the Hetch Hetchy tragedy
76
Planning and Civic Comment
which shadowed John Muir's last years will be especially enlighten- ing. She mentions J. Horace Mc- Farland along with Stephen T. Mather, Robert Underwood John- son, C. Hart Merriam, John C. Merriam and William E. Colby as rallying under Muir's leadership to save Hetch Hetchy. She explains the action of Congress, Cabinet officials and Presidents who acted at long range and in her belief "knew not what they did." John Muir expended himself on the fight to save the incomparable valley in the Yosemite National Park from the desecration of a commercial reser- voir which has since proved to be less than a good investment and a futile sacrifice. She adds:
One great piece of compensating good was gaining ground. The friends of the parks, headed by J. Horace McFarland, spurred on by threatened invasions, and most of all by the loss of the Hetch Hetchy, were working for the creation of a National Park Service.
Mrs. Wolfe has outlined briefly the fate of the various bills intro- duced into Congress from 1910 to 1916 when the Act creating the Na- tional Park Service finally passed Congress and brought to Washing- ton Stephen T. Mather and Horace M. Albright.
Mrs. Wolfe has written the Life of John Muir in dramatic simplicity. She visited Wisconsin and Indian- apolis to seek for anecdotes and memories of Muir who had dwelt in these places so many years ago. John Muir had lived well beyond his allotted three score and ten years and now it is nearly one hundred years since the boy John arrived in Wisconsin; but Mrs. Wolfe dis- covered many stones and impres-
sions handed down in the families who had known the Muirs. These have enriched her book and added to the fullness of the Life which will preserve for future generations the intimate human life of that great man, John Muir.
A MILLION HOMES A YEAR. Dorothy Rosenman. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. 1945. $3.50.
Mrs. Rosenman opens her practical book on housing with a theme which might be said to be the motif of the American Planning and Civic As- sociation—the prodigality and beauty of Nature and the defilement by Man. Instead of the dream dwell- ings of the Currier & Ives litho- graphs, she states, we have in the 37,325,470 dwelling units, 14,000,000 without flush toilets, 12,000,000 without private bathtubs, almost 11,000,000 without running water and nearly 8,000,000 without elec- tricity. In 1940, 6,413,726 Ameri- can homes were reported to need major repairs.
All this is well known to planners and "housers" but Mrs. Rosenman is aiming for a larger audience. Even when all allowances for statistical errors are taken into account, the Census reports on families in a typical American metropolis dis- close the unwelcome truth that far too many families cannot afford even the smallest decent house, and, unfortunately, the size of the family does not dictate the size of the in- come!
Mrs. Rosenman presents the re- cent history and service of the Federal housing agencies. She asks the pertinent question: Can con- struction costs be lowered? and concludes :
77
Planning and Civic Comment
There is a trend toward rising resi- dential-building costs. There is an over- powering demand for comfortable, low- cost homes. These two forces may be reconciled. The hope of reconciliation lies in the present awareness of the various forces within the industry that they have not yet scratched the surface of possi- bility and that immeasurable financial success and personal gratification lies in store for those who persevere and succeed.
The attention of the readers is directed to interesting figures on the cost and development of land, the impact of taxation, the importance of the neighborhood and the blight of slums. In discussing the prev- alent objections to public housing, Mrs. Rosenman makes a plea for closer relations between the com- munity and the local housing au- thority. She discusses various sorts of subsidies and finally sums up in a nutshell three principal goals:
1. To provide homes at lower cost
2. To provide stability of home values
3. To provide homes in a con- venient, prosperous and pleasurable milieu. She argues that a National planning agency should be recreated to:
collate facts that would be of inesti- mable value to state and local planning agencies. It should inventory the natural, commercial, and industrial resources of this country. It should chart their trends and in- fluences and make these facts available to the people of the United States and their Congress, to state, county and municipal officials, including planning bodies on all of these levels.
Mrs. Rosenman believes in na- tional, state and city planning. She maintains that:
The general public does not recognize the fact that planning is just as essential to a successful peacetime economy as it is to a wartime economy. It is essential to the financial and social welfare of the people of this country. Because these facts have not
gained public recognition, most state and local planning agencies continue to be in- ert, and there is no established peacetime national planning agency.
And very aptly she adds :
Through an integrated system of national, state, county, metropolitan, and municipal planning, roads, parks, schools and public buildings may be esthetically and economically fitted to the needs and desires of the people.
Thus we need more and better planning as well as more and better houses, if all of our people are to live in decent homes in well-serviced neighborhoods.
COST MEASUREMENT IN URBAN REDE- VELOPMENT. Miles L.CoIean and Arthur P. Davis. National Committee on Hous- ing. New York. May 1945. Price $15.
In the Foreword, Mrs Samuel I. Rosenman explains that the older sections of cities, otherwise ripe for rebuilding, are placed at a competi- tive disadvantage with open out- lying sections. Acquisition costs of reassembling small parcels and of removing existing structures are gen- erally higher than for outlying sites. Likewise real estate taxes. The purpose of the study is to reveal the influence of land costs upon final monthly shelter costs. The Authors declare that:
Where land is available at low prices, even up to as much as 50 to 75 cents a square foot, a choice of building types may usually be made on the basis of what is de- sirable for the class of tenancy contem- plated. Below this limit, not only the lowest rentals, but the most attractive rate of return at a given rental is obtained in the types of buildings which call for the lowest densities. Above about one dollar per square foot, however, except where relatively high rentals may be obtained, choice is rapidly eliminated, and the balance falls more and more heavily in favor of multistory structures, whether or not they are the most suitable sort of housing for the families that will occupy them. . . .
78
Planning and Civic Comment
One aspect of this situation is that, even at the extreme of land price, density increases of 100 percent will permit rentals to be reduced only between 10 and 20 percent.
If our cities are to be rebuilt, the National Committee on Housing
points out that these disadvantages must be overcome Certainly sub- dividers and builders might well study the survey and ponder over its factual data and resulting con- clusions.
Recent Publications
Compiled by KATHERINE McNAMARA, Librarian of the Departments of Land- scape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNERS. COM- MITTEE ON PLANNING LEGISLATION. Statement of the American Institute of Planners through its Committee on Legislation on state (including District of Columbia) urban redevelopment bills and statutes. [Cambridge, Mass.], The Institute, [1945]. 4 pages. Mimeo- graphed.
Alfred Bettman, chairman of Com- mittee.
AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. COMMITTEE ON THE HYGIENE OF HOUS- ING. An appraisal method for measur- ing the quality of housing: a yardstick for healtn officers, housing officials and planners. Part I, Nature and uses of the method. New York, The Associa- tion, 1945. 71 pages. IIIus., maps, tables, chart. Price $1.00.
AMERICAN TRANSIT ASSOCIATION. Transit fact book; annual summary of basic data and trends in the transit industry of the United States. New York, The Association, 1945. 46 pages. Tables, charts (colored).
BAUER, JOHN. Postwar planning for metropolitan utilities. New York, National Municipal League, 1945. 31 pages.
Reprint from series of articles in National Municipal Review, June, July, Sept., Oct. 1944.
BEAN, GEORGE E. Survey for a district heating service for the city of Escanaba, Michigan, September 1944. [Escanaba, Mich.], 1944. 47 pages. Mimeographed. Cross sections, tables, charts.
BENNETT, CHARLES B., and MILTON BREIVOGEL. Planning for the San Fernando Valley. [Los Angeles, Calif.], City Planning Commission, 1945. 12 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, table, chart. Reprinted from Western City, Apr. 1945.
BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES. LIBRARY. A bibliography of housing and town and
country planning in Britain. New York The Services, Dec. 1944. 20 pages.
BUNGE, J. H. O. Tideless Thames in future London. Foreword by the Right Honourable the Lord Desborough. With articles on the Thames barrage from a health aspect, by W[iIIia]m Butler; The Thames barrage in a re- planned London, by Sir Charles Bressey. London, The Thames Barrage Associa- tion, 1944. 121 pages. IIIus., maps (part on end papers), cross sections, tables, charts, portrait. Price 10s, 6d. Distributed by Frederick MuIIer Ltd.
CALIFORNIA. MAJOR HIGHWAY DEVELOP- MENT COMMITTEE. Modern highways for California. [San Francisco?], Tne Committee, [1945]. 15 pages. Map.
CHURCHILL, HENRY S. The city is the people. New York, Reynal & Hitch- cock, 1945. 186 pages. IIIus., maps, plans. Price $3.00.
COLEAN, MILES L., and ARTHUR P. DAVIS. Cost measurement in urban redevelop- ment. New York, National Committee on Housing, Inc., May 1945. 43 pages. Plans, tables (part folded), charts (folded). Price $15.00 ($12.50 to members).
COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOP- MENT. AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES COMMITTEE. Postwar jobs and growth in small communities; preliminary draft. New York, The Committee, [1944]. 15 pages. IIIus., tables.
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS. HOUSING AU- THORITY. Shelter problems; a report to the Corpus Christi Planning Com- mission, comp. by Finley Vinson [and others]. Corpus Christi, The Authority, [1944]. [24]pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, chart.
GILLIAM, SARA K. Virginia's people; a study of the growth and distribution of the population of Virginia from 1607 to 1943. Richmond, Virginia State Planning Board, 1944. 132 pages.
79
Planning and Civic Comment
Maps, tables, charts. (Population Study Report no. 4.)
GITTLER, JOSEPH B. Virginia's people: a cultural panorama. [Richmond, Vir- ginia State Planning Board, 1944. 125 pages. Maps, tables, charts. (Popula- tion Study report no. 5.)
HUDDLE, FRANK P. Regional develop- ment. Washington, Editorial Research Reports, Jan. 1, 1945. 19 pages. Tables. (Editorial Research Reports, vol. 1, no. 1.) Price $1.00.
LONDON, ENG. IMPROVEMENTS AND TOWN PLANNING COMMITTEE. Report ... to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assem- bled, on the preliminary draft pro- posals for post-war reconstruction in the City of London. London, pub- lished on behalf of the Corporation of London, by B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1944. 32 + 34 pages. IIIus. (part folded and part colored), maps (part folded and part colored), plans (part folded and part colored), tables, charts. Price 10s. 6d.
McGiLL UNIVERSITY. SCHOOL OF ARCHI- TECTURE, AND OTHERS. Housing and community planning; a series of lec- tures delivered at McGill University, November 2, 1943-March 21, 1944. The series was planned by the School of Architecture and the Committee on Extension Lectures, with the coopera- tion of the government of the Province of Quebec. Montreal, McGill Uni- versity, 1944. 210 pages. Plans, tables, charts. Price $1.00.
MASSACHUSETTS. METROPOLITAN TRANSIT RECESS COMMISSION. Report of the Metropolitan Transit Recess Commis- sion appointed under chapter fifty-six of the resolves of nineteen hundred and forty-three to investigate and study relative to rapid transit in the Boston metropolitan area. [Boston], The Com- mission, Apr. 2, 1945. Ill pages. IIIus. (colored), maps (part folded), plans, tables.
MONTREAL, CANADA. METROPOLITAN COMMISSION. Financial study of the Montreal Metropolitan Commission with proposed debt reorganization program. Montreal, The Commission, Nov. 1944. 102 pages. Tables (part folded).
MORROW, C. EARL. Planning your com- munity; a manual of suggestions for practical community planning. New York, Regional Plan Association, Inc., 1945. 42 pages. Charts. Price 50 cents.
NEWARK, N. J. HOUSING AUTHORITY. A study of the social effects of public housing in Newark, N. J. This study was conducted by Jay Rumney . . . and Sara Shuman . . . Newark, The Au- thority, Nov. 1944. 95 pages. IIIus., tables, charts.
U. S. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION. Postwar reclamation; an inventory of irrigation and multiple-purpose projects for con- struction by the Bureau of Reclamation, presented to the Committee on Irriga- tion and Reclamation, House of Repre- sentatives, April 12, 1945. [Washing- ton], The Bureau, 1945. 39 pages. Mimeographed. Tables (part folded).
U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRATION. Statistical handbook of civil aviation. Washington, The Administration, Oct. 15, 1944. 86 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, tables, charts.
U. S. COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS. Report of the Commission of Fine Arts . . . during the period January 1, 1940, to June 30, 1944. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 110 pages. IIIus., plans, portraits. (U. S. Congress. 2d Session. Senate Document no. 204.) Price 50 cents.
U. S. CONGRESS. 78th 2d Session. Senate. Control and use of the water resources of the Missouri River Basin. Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Com- mittee on Irrigation and Reclamation, United States Senate, Seventy-eighth Congress, Second Session, on S. 1915, a bill to authorize the undertaking of the initial stage of the comprehensive plan for the conservation, control, and use of the water resources of the Missouri River Basin, September 26, and Octo- ber 2, 1944, Washington, D.C. Wash- ington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 178 pages. Tables, charts (part folded).
U. S. NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY. War housing in the United States, prepared for use at the Conference of the United Nations in San Francisco, California, April 1945. Washington, [Govt. Print- ing Office], 1945. 36 pages. - Tables. Price 10 cents.
U. S. WAR PRODUCTION BOARD. OFFICE OF CIVILIAN REQUIREMENTS. The market for houses when materials and manpower are available. Third survey of consumer requirements conducted April 17-22, 1944. Washington, The Producers Council, Inc. Oct. 1944. 17 pages. Mimeographed. Tables.
80
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Printed by the Mount Pleasant Press. J, Horace McFariand Company Harris burg, Pa.
Planning and Civic Comment
VoL
October, 1945
No. 4
Roadside Improvement, 1938-1945
By FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Counsel, APCA
The greatest expansion of high- way facilities in the country's his- tory along with the greatest increase in highway traffic is just ahead. In all programs of public work the highway items head the list. No public work offers as great or as varied employment opportunities at a time when the employment sit- uation may soon be critical. No public work meets such an imme- diate public need.
In 1938 surveys of about 2,000 of the more than 3,000 counties in the country showed that 25,000 miles of new or newly located highways were needed. In the war years the only roads built were for war emer- gencies, and the highway shortage was materially increased. Congress has voted Federal participation in this essential program by an appro- priation of one and a half billion dollars, to be apportioned among the states over a three-year period.
Will these new highways assure a safer and pleasanter journey to the traveler? The answer depends a good deal on how the land at the edge of the traveled way is handled. If the roadside borders are consid- ered as essential parts of the design of a complete highway, if the plan of the highway includes a plan for the regulation or control of these borders, traffic will be carried more efficiently and the huge public in-
vestment in roads will be better protected.
Up to 1938 the land bordering the highway was mostly in private hands, and the attempt to control its use was chiefly by laws regulating a specific use of land, and by general or special zoning laws.
Laws Regulating Specific Uses
A Connecticut statute regulated all filling stations on trunk and state- aid highways by requiring a license from the State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. This could be issued only after a hearing and a finding by the local authorities con- cerned that the location was suitable in view of traffic conditions and public safety.1
Maine, Connecticut and Delaware controlled "automobile graveyards" usually by a set-back from the highway or by fencing.2 Ver- mont prohibited their location al- together within view of the high- way.3
The most generally regulated use was outdoor advertising. As of July 1938, forty-two States had laws of some sort directed against signs on private property. In thirty States, "snipe signs," the little nuisances on
iConn. Gen'I Statutes. Revision of 1930, Ch. 84, Sees. 1661-1667.
ZMaine, Chap. 296, Acts of 1941. Conn. Gen. Stat. Revision of 1930, Sees. 2936-2943. Delaware. Acts of 1937, Ch. 194. . .
•Vermont. Public Laws of 1933, Sees. 3669-3674.
Planning and Civic Comment
fences, posts, walls, trees and rocks, were prohibited unless the adver- tiser had the consent of the land owner, usually in writing; and in three of the thirty they were banned altogether.
Nineteen States collected fees, some charging both a fixed license fee for the privilege of advertising on the roadside and a varying (per- mit) fee for each location depending on the size of the structure.
Thirty States restricted the loca- tion of advertising structures. Areas usually protected were specific dis- tances from parks, parkways, rail- road crossings and highway inter- sections.
A few States enforced set-back lines: Connecticut 15 feet, Nevada 20 feet, Maine 50 feet from the high- way line; in Vermont and Massa- chusetts the set-back was regulated by the area of advertising space, up to 300 feet in case of 300 square feet or more of such space.1
The Massachusetts regulations were the most comprehensive. In addition to license and permit fees and to the set-back provisions above cited, they have the unique feature of prohibiting advertising signs in residential blocks except with the consent of the majority of the frontage owners. A residential block is one in which half the buildings on both sides of the street are used ex- clusively for residential purposes.
The body of law regulating specific uses of the roadside has changed little since 1938, but the legal theory on which the right to regulate is based has received additional sup-
1For further details see "Compilation of State Laws" in "Roadside Improvement," pp. 18-25, published by the American Planning and Civic Ass'n.
port. In general the courts have held that the right of the private owner to use his land is subordinate to the public right of safe travel.
In 1930 the right of the city to prohibit a billboard within 500 feet of a park was upheld. The court believed that the attractiveness of places affected their prosperity, and that regulations which produce or increase attractiveness are valid.2
In 1935 billboards were held to be in a class by themselves and therefore subject to special regula- tion. The inability of the public to escape from such advertising was emphasized.3
In 1936 the Massachusetts Su- preme Court established three tests to determine the validity of bill- board regulations:
(1) If the sign diverts the attention.
(2) If the sign is intrusive.
(3) If in appropriate instances the sign offends good taste or fitness or is in conflict with scenic beauty or historic interest.4
In 1942 the Vermont Supreme Court in upholding the state bill- board law made a new point against outdoor advertising. The court said that the right of the land owner to be seen from the highway is only where the right is exercised in con- nection with his use or development of his land. The benefit or advan- tage of a third person like a billboard company or an individual advertiser is not included. Outdoor advertising is not so much a use of private land as it is of the public highway and therefore is subject to regulation.6
JGeneraI Outdoor Adv. Co., Inc. vs. City of Indianapolis, 202 Ind. 85.
'Packer Corp'n t>s. Utah 285 U. S. 105.
^General Outdoor Adv. Co., Inc. vs. Dept. of Public Works, 289 Mass. 149.
*KeIbro Inc. vs. My rick, Secretary of State. 30 Atl. 2nd, 527.
Planning and Civic Comment
The chief results of billboard legislation have been to eliminate small signs, to move the boards back somewhat from the edge of the road, and above all, to make the people conscious of the need for further improvement. There is little evi- dence that the number of large boards has decreased except in Vermont and Massachusetts, but the movement of large boards from rural sections to more compact areas is evident in other States and can be traced either to enforcement of the law or to public insistence.
Even if other laws promise a more effective solution of some factors in the roadside problems, there will be need of billboard regulation. A strong law which will include license and permit fees and the regulative features of the Massachusetts law is recommended for every State. Leg- islation lags away behind the de- cisions of the courts which have interpreted the police power as applied to the highway.
Zoning Laws. Billboard laws and all other laws directed against a specific use are defective, because they leave unregulated so many types of commercial use which add to the hazards of travel and take from its pleasure. A much more effective way to control business on the highway is through zoning to concentrate it in logical and accur- ately defined areas.
The right to zone has been dele- gated by general or special laws in all the States, and in most of them all types of municipalities may zone. About half the States, most of them with extensive rural areas, have authorized county zoning, usually limiting the exercise of the right to
areas outside of incorporated com- munities. But the zoning method of highway protection has not been used where it is most needed. The rural townships and the rural coun- ties have been indifferent to zoning or readily induced to oppose its adoption by arguments addressed to the selfish interest of the land owner. The notable exceptions show the great possibilities in county zoning.
The El Paso County (Colorado) zoning ordinance has developed a new type of zone, called the Road- side Service District, in which all business uses not related to the traveling public are prohibited. Bill- boards and junk yards are expressly included in the banned uses. It is reported that 546 of the 577 square miles of Macon County (Illinois) are zoned for agriculture, and billboards are among the prohibited uses. One thousand miles of highway in San Mateo County (California) have been protected by zoning which limits business, including advertis- ing signs, to specific areas.
Zoning is still, however, over- whelmingly an urban process, and a rapid change in the attitude of rural sections can not be expected. In this situation highway zoning by a state agency has been advocated, and bills which define a "highway protective area" and authorize its zoning by the state highway author- ity have been considered by several state legislatures in the last few years. Against the solid opposition of the rural sections and of the out- door advertising companies this method of highway protection has made no headway.
Maryland in 19411 adopted an in-
iChap. 933, Law. of 1941.
Planning and Civic Comment
teresting modification of highway zoning in granting to the county commission of Prince George's County the right to zone highway protective areas on six named high- » ways. The area was limited to 300 feet on both sides of the highways.
This precedent may point the way to full adoption of state or county highway zoning. Certainly the State and the county have a much greater interest in their main transportation routes than any community through which they pass and a greater duty to protect them. The separation of business from residence areas is recognized as essential to the wel- fare of urban areas. That separa- tion is equally imperative on the transportation routes in rural areas. Public Ownership of the Roadside. The general failure of regulation as a protective measure has been in large part responsible for a change in high- way policy. With or without legis- lation there is a trend toward control of the borders of the travel lanes through public ownership. The simplest change is to increase the width of the right-of-way for all new highway locations. Instead of ac- quiring land only for the travel lanes, the complete highway is con- ceived as traveled way plus a separating strip on both sides. If this buffer strip is wide enough it has a discouraging influence on com- mercial use of the private land be- yond, particularly where the con- tour of the land, the natural growth, or the new planting serve as a par- tial screen. Although the land abutting this highway corridor still has a right of access to the lanes of travel, the access roads must cross public land and can be more readily
adjusted to the requirements of highway traffic. Certainly the haz- ards at points of entrance can be greatly reduced.
The most noteworthy advance in roadside improvement and highway protection is complete public control of the right of access to the highway. Parkway design and practice furnish the precedents. Public lands ad- joining the travel lanes of a park- way have a different quality or legal status from the buffer strips above described. They are park land and consequently private abutting land has no right of access to the park- way lanes. It would be legally proper for the public authorities to fence the boundary line between the park and private land. Such land has no value for commercial purposes. Billboards which flourish without the right of access can often be planted out, and if more is needed to control their location, a short and simple regulatory law is effec- tive. "No advertising sign shall be located within 1,000 feet of park- ways, except in designated areas," is the essence of such a law.
If parkways can be safeguarded by controlling the exits and en- trances of all side roads, why not apply the same policy to the roads in the state highway system which in the judgment of the highway authority need the protection? The right of access which is the stum- bling block in this proposal must be expressly limited or controlled in the new legislation which authorizes this radical change in highway policy.
New York and Rhode Island were the pioneers in limited access high- way legislation, and from 1938 to
Planning and Civic Comment
1945 at least sixteen States have followed their example.1 Some of these laws authorize both parkways and all-purpose highways. Most of them expressly permit the designa- tion of existing highways as limited access roads. It is not likely that any considerable mileage of old highways will be converted into limited access roads, because of the expense of acquiring the right of access ; but if on most of the 25,000+ miles of new highways sorely needed, access could be controlled the prob- lem of the roadside would be well on the way to solution.
The bulletin, Roadside Improve- ment, issued in 1938 as a part of the legal research made possible by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., proposed a suggested state roadside develop- ment and control act, an act for the acquisition, development and pro- tection of limited access highways, and an act to regulate outdoor ad- vertising. The suggested law es- tablishing highway protective dis- tricts was the most far-reaching of the three and contained practi- cally all the advantages of the others. The limited access highway law would be especially useful in the establishment of new routes through undeveloped country; its use on existing highways was not recommended with the same con- fidence as the law establishing high- way protective districts. The law regulating billboards obviously falls short of the protective features of the suggested state roadside de- velopment and control act or the act for the acquisition, development and protection of limited access highways, but it is recommended if
1See appended list.
an intermediate step to the more comprehensive law is thought ex- pedient. The task ahead is to fit the type of controlling legislation to the situation in each State and to make public opinion conscious of the need of the best highway pro- tection.
Limited Access Highway Laws
NEW YORK. Laws of 1937, Chap- ter 248. RHODE ISLAND. General Laws of
1938, Chap. 75, Sees. 1-4. CALIFORNIA. Statutes of 1939,
Chap. 687. CONNECTICUT. General Statutes
of 1939. Supplement, Title XI,
Chap. 80, Part II, Sees. 427e-
429e. WEST VIRGINIA. Code of 1939,
Supp. of 1941, Chap. 17, Sec.
1474 (21-24). MAINE. Laws of 1939. Chap. 283,
Sees. 1-5. COLORADO. Laws of 1941, Chap.
195, Sees. 1-12. MARYLAND. Laws of 1941, Chap.
487, Sees. 150-154. MICHIGAN. Acts of 1941, No. 205. OHIO. Laws of 1941, Sees. 7464-1
to 7464-5. LOUISIANA. Acts of 1942. No. 4,
Title XI, Sec. 47; Title XIII,
Sec. 53; Title XV, Sec. 57. VIRGINIA. Acts of 1942, Chap. 78. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Laws of 1943,
Chap. 79. FLORIDA. Laws of 1943, Chap.
22045. TEXAS. Laws of 1943. Limited
to City of Dallas. MASSACHUSETTS. Acts of 1943,
Planning and Civic Comment
Chap. 397.
ILLINOIS. Laws of 1943, Page 1177.
NEW JERSEY. Revised Statutes, Supplement of 1945, Title 27, Chap. 7A.
On to Dallas, April 21, 1946
Mayor J. Woodall Rodgers, of Dallas, Texas, who presented an invitation from Dallas to the Ameri- can Planning and Civic Association at the Saint Louis meeting in 1944, has now taken up vigorously the organization of a Sponsoring Com- mittee for the Citizens Conference on Planning which has been set for the week of April 21, 1946, with headquarters at the Baker Hotel. Miss Harlean James spent several days in October with Dallas civic leaders in laying the groundwork for a conference which no one inter- ested in city, state and national planning can afford to miss.
For those who arrive in town on Sunday, April 21, there will be an informal supper in the famous Texas Room of the Hotel Baker. The first day will be spent on problems of city and metropolitan planning, includ- ing rail, air and transit facilities which will play an increasingly im- portant role in city life.
On the second day various Fed- eral Services to local communities will be discussed, together with Citizen Interest and Action. There will be a significant trip around Dallas, ending at the State Fair Grounds, with a visit to the Art Museum, where supper will be served. An evening session will be held in the beautiful auditorium of the Hall of State where the program will be in charge of the Dallas His- torical Society of which Mr. Geroge B. Dealey is President.
On Wednesday morning certain state planning projects will be dis- cussed, followed by a National Park Lunch. On both Tuesday and Wednesday, there will be after- breakfast round tables on Citizens Organizations for Community Plan- ning, Zoning and the Courts and on the Function of State Planning Boards.
Beginning with the Wednesday afternoon session, the meetings will be held jointly with Friends of the Land. A galaxy of famous conser- vation leaders will give distinction to these sessions. The American Planning and Civic Association conference will end with the Wed- nesday night's joint dinner; but members are invited to remain for the Friends of the Land meetings and trip to the Trinity River Water- shed. Likewise members of Friends of the Land are invited to come early and attend the sessions of the Civic Association.
There will be an exhibit of plans and pictures of public works and projects from all parts of the coun- try.
Preliminary programs will be dis- tributed in January in ample time for interested civic leaders and officials to make their reservations and plans to attend the Conference. In the meantime, it might be well to note the dates and save the time for Dallas.
Plan Progress Through Federal Loans
By GEORGE H. FIELD, Commissioner, Bureau of Community Facilities, FWA
The Bureau of Community Facilities of the Federal Works Agency, as authorized by Title V of the War Mobilization and Re- conversion Act of 1944, conducts a program through which advances of Federal funds are made to State and local governments to assist them in making plan preparation for their public works, exclusive of housing. A first appropriation of $17,500,000 was made by Congress for this pur- pose in May 1945. A request for a further appropriation of $50,000,000, and in addition, contract authoriza- tion for $57,500,000, is now before Congress and has been strongly urged by the President.
The apportionment among the States of funds appropriated for this purpose is prescribed by Congress in accordance with a method based chiefly on population. The State apportionments of the first appro- priation are shown in Table 1. This table also shows the amount of advances requested and approved, as of November 15, 1945. It will be seen that the total of advances re- quested is double the amount avail- able under the first appropriation.
Within each State, for the pur- pose of securing a wide and equitable distribution of planning advances, preliminary budgets or quotas were set up by the Bureau for counties and groups of counties, in accord- ance with population, and for the state government and agencies serv- ing the entire State.
Each planning advance is a sum advanced to help meet the cost of
drawings, specifications and other definite plan preparations for a specific public work. It is to be re- paid, without interest, when funds become available to the applicant for the construction of the public work so planned.
Through November 15, 1945, applications had been received by the Bureau for planning advances for $34,053,000, for public works with total estimated costs of $1,146,- 680,000; and applications had been approved for planning advances totaling $11,209,000, for public works with total estimated con- struction costs of $402,602,000. It is expected that practically the entire amount available will have been committed within a short time.
The types of public works which predominate in requests for planning advances are sewer, water and sanitation facilities, and schools and other educational facilities. The estimated total and construction costs of the various types of public works for which planning advances have been requested and have been approved, as of November 15, 1945, are shown in Table 2.
A continuing survey has been initiated by the Bureau for the pur- pose of finding out how much plan preparation of state and local pub- lic works is being undertaken with- out any Federal assistance. This survey will cover only projects for which plan preparations are com- plete and those for which plans are under design. A comprehensive re- port will be available early in 1946.
Planning and Civic Comment
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, BUREAU OF COMMUNITY FACILITIES
TABLE 1 — AMOUNTS APPORTIONED, ADVANCES FOR PLAN PREPARATION REQUESTED AND ADVANCES APPROVED, BY STATE, AS OF NOVEMBER 15, 1945
STATE
United States
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York
North Carolina North Dakota Ohio
Oklahoma Oregon
Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
|
AMOUNTS |
NUMBER |
NUMBER |
||
|
APPORTIONED |
OF |
AMOUNT |
OF |
AMOUNT |
|
APPLICA- |
APPLICA- |
|||
|
TIONS |
TIONS |
|||
|
$16,693,181 |
3,207 |
$34,053,210 |
1,572 |
$11,208,789 |
|
322,966 |
65 |
587,407 |
34 |
291,820 |
|
94,875 |
27 |
178,044 |
16 |
87,974 |
|
222,135 |
91 |
461,933 |
39 |
165,054 |
|
887,097 |
217 |
1,806,492 |
128 |
856,879 |
|
153,025 |
15 |
199,726 |
11 |
118,276 |
|
194,788 |
27 |
366,858 |
20 |
135,558 |
|
84,875 |
1 |
6,760 |
||
|
316,329 |
100 |
1,466,672 |
29 |
304,993 |
|
456,119 |
168 |
1,148,888 |
53 |
424,027 |
|
84,875 |
||||
|
900,150 |
208 |
5,082,021 |
98 |
783,512 |
|
430,646 |
87 |
1,846,976 |
32 |
295,024 |
|
289,356 |
28 |
120,784 |
18 |
63,177 |
|
205,330 |
28 |
149,257 |
19 |
108,455 |
|
324,341 |
53 |
370,797 |
31 |
210,771 |
|
369,495 |
135 |
579,394 |
87 |
378,812 |
|
96,554 |
27 |
168,760 |
10 |
47,210 |
|
207,621 |
30 |
151,110 |
9 |
64,880 |
|
517,088 |
95 |
1,167,744 |
43 |
281,264 |
|
659,031 |
142 |
1,413,686 |
70 |
658,764 |
|
318,230 |
60 |
199,669 |
33 |
123,282 |
|
248,870 |
93 |
364,720 |
49 |
202,249 |
|
531,437 |
153 |
1,192,308 |
78 |
363,892 |
|
94,875 |
21 |
180,092 |
14 |
93,879 |
|
150,025 |
15 |
175,032 |
5 |
48,965 |
|
84,875 |
8 |
76,682 |
5 |
45,942 |
|
84,875 |
13 |
146,830 |
6 |
54,310 |
|
474,214 |
177 |
2,739,663 |
41 |
315,653 |
|
84,875 |
24 |
68,388 |
12 |
50,014 |
|
1,536,305 |
32 |
1,401,434 |
23 |
907,064 |
|
407,145 |
36 |
125,966 |
7 |
44,630 |
|
84,875 |
8 |
39,160 |
4 |
24,300 |
|
787,402 |
187 |
2,483,641 |
85 |
710,478 |
|
416,287 |
94 |
709,992 |
63 |
393,506 |
|
134,206 |
14 |
120,212 |
9 |
87,912 |
|
1,128,3% |
124 |
1,309,508 |
52 |
573,635 |
|
84,875 |
8 |
215,923 |
2 |
18,487 |
|
216,482 |
99 |
594,385 |
41 |
198,534 |
|
84,875 |
7 |
17,850 |
2 |
5,050 |
|
332,286 |
21 |
344,886 |
9 |
43,785 |
|
731,181 |
198 |
960,451 |
142 |
654,149 |
|
94,875 |
40 |
216,204 |
25 |
82,767 |
|
84,875 |
15 |
95,868 |
11 |
54,400 |
|
355,245 |
51 |
1,206,934 |
18 |
218,077 |
|
197,844 |
44 |
602,175 |
14 |
127,033 |
|
8 |
Planning and Civic Comment
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, BUREAU OF COMMUNITY FACILITIES
continued
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Dist. of Columbia
Alaska Hawaii Puerto Rico
216,788
357,646
84,875
84,875
84,875
84,875
213,121
45
39
5
6
12
14
400,707
403,346
24,750
195,975
69,550 97,600
30
20
2
4
8 11
184,221 85,200 17,450 84,875
36,500 82,100
TABLE 2 — ESTIMATED TOTAL AND CONSTRUCTION COSTS OF PROPOSED PUBLIC WORKS FOR WHICH ADVANCES HAVE BEEN REQUESTED AND HAVE BEEN APPROVED BY TYPE OF PUBLIC WORK AS OF NOVEMBER 15, 1945
PUBLIC WORKS (ADVANCES REQUESTED) TYPES OF PUBLIC WORK ESTIMATED ESTIMATED
TOTAL CONSTRUCTION
COST COST
TOTALS $1,419,425,646 $1,146,680,341
Highways, Roads and
Streets
Bridges, Viaducts and Grade Separations
Airports
Sewer, Water and Sani- tation Facilities
Schools and Other Edu- cational Facilities
Hospitals and Health Facilities
Other Public Buildings NEC
Parks and Other Rec- reational Facilities
Miscellaneous Public Facilities, NEC
54,970,918
49,019,521
|
83,606,229 33,348,658 |
72,549,253 26,951,009 |
|
561,941,630 |
470,749,203 |
|
298,503,654 |
245,945,397 |
|
67,497,902 |
54,489,484 |
|
95,835,494 |
77,294,213 |
|
93,563,226 |
59,162,353 |
|
130,157,935 |
90,519,908 |
PUBLIC WORKS (ADVANCES APPROVED) ESTIMATED ESTIMATED TOTAL CONSTRUC- COST TION COST
$491,993,554 $402,602,064
12,339,815 11,067,141
18,044,382 2,785,955
13,775,970 2,361,755
|
212,612,472 |
184,810,629 |
|
97,227,010 |
81,332,548 |
|
26,323,637 |
21,341,689 |
|
45,218,036 |
36,991,148 |
|
6,447,151 |
5,223,623 |
|
70,995,096 |
45,697,561 |
State Park Tour — Advance Notice
The Pacific Coast Traveling Con- ference on State Parks which was originally scheduled for 1942, is now planned for the autumn of 1946. There will be discussion sessions to compare the experiences of the different States in meeting the problems of preserving natural scenery and serving the public. There are now more than 2,500 state parks, totaling over 4,000,000 acres, in which more than 30,000 guests can be accommodated at one time.
In California the Conference will visit Old Missions and Old Red- woods in the fine system which is being developed in that State. In Oregon the Conference will visit the chain of parks which lie along the spectacular rocky coast.
Everyone interested in state parks and every director of state parks should mark this event down now and make plans to attend this unique Traveling Conference next autumn.
A Warning!
By MARGO K. FRANKEL, Des Moines, Iowa
When I think of the splendid recreation areas provided across Tennessee by the Tennessee Valley Authority as seen on a trip through that area during the beautiful Autumn of 1945, it seems difficult, indeed, to point out the possible pitfalls to States that are hoping for similar developments. Neverthe- less, it is the unalterable and serious responsibility of state authorities to give grave consideration to the future of such developments. It is the duty of State Park authorities to look to the future more than to the immediate enjoyment of land and waters, for once interfered with, no power on earth can restore such areas within a reasonable period of time, if at all.
The Tennessee Valley develop- ment bound together under a special organization a group of the finest specialists in soil conservation and land use in the highest socialized sense. However, to imagine that land use around all dams and pools will be planned and carried out equally well as in this case is folly.
Even with the initial advantage of careful planning by a staff of ex- perienced and capable engineers, results in the Tennessee area we visited leave much to be desired. We saw eroding banks which it will be possible to control only if (and "If" must be spelled with a capital "I") sufficient funds are continuous- ly available. A fine start toward this desired accomplishment has been made, especially in the Morris dam
area, but currently the program has slowed down somewhat. It must be vigorously pursued.
In this connection, our Iowa experience should be cited. For as long as I can remember, the Army has been in charge of the upper Mississippi. Years of building wing dams which proved ineffective in maintaining an open channel, were followed by the inauguration of the famous roller dams designed to scour the river and prevent siltation. What has actually happened, how- ever? Simply this: the channel is cleared about as far back as the eddy of the dam — in some places this reaches 300 feet — but the silting beyond that becomes heavy as can be appreciated when flowing water reaches still water!
These dams were built by Army engineers with, I am convinced, sincere conviction that the best conservation principles were being followed. However, the results of these constructions tell quite a different story — one of awful dev- astation to areas that were once among the greatest beauty spots of America. Miles of tree stumps stand where once beautiful islands made the river trip fascinating. The Iowa Conservation Commission was as- sured that trees would be completely cut, but contracts were evidently let with no supervision and so a night- mare of dead tree stumps despoils such areas as the once famous Win- neshiek bottoms above Linxville. Water acts as a preservative for these stumps and they will undoubt-
10
Planning and Civic Comment
edly be standing long after we are gone. This is unforgivable.
Power dams are even more per- nicious in their effect on silt-carry- ing streams. As a result of the con- struction of the famous Hugh Cooper dam at Keokuk, Iowa, originally proposed and expected to lower power rates in Iowa (in reality, the power has been sold to St. Louis) the silting has been so excessive that it has not only destroyed one of the finest fishing areas in the Middle West, but has definitely affected the whole river and its shore lines thirty- five miles up stream, the power which was expected to be derived from the dam has never been at- tained, and because of the lost storage capacity, turbines have been installed in only part of the dam.
The old Wilson Dam, also built by the great Hugh Cooper following World War I and better known as Muscle Shoals, has also silted so heavily that its power production is impaired.
Destruction of fishing recreation also means biological destruction. Hundreds of families who formerly lived by shrimp fishing have been deprived of their means of livelihood by the Santee Cooper Dam near Charleston, South Carolina; the great pearl shell "clammers" who plied their quiet trade on the Mis- sissippi are gone. Watch the volume of production of the canneries in the Pacific Northwest: a dangerous de- cline will be noted.
New pools create increased rec- reation for a period, but who will continue to occupy a cottage on a heavily silting bank where dead and polluted water exists instead of the fresh water that maintains fish life?
However, it is not fish life, but human life and its right to live in- creasingly well that is at stake. Any park director realizes the decline in park use resulting when shores be- come muddy with increasing silt — a park intended for restful relaxation becomes like the blighted area of a once beautiful city.
The Power and Light Company at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has ac- knowledged that power is produced cheaper from their use of Illinois and Kentucky coal than from their power dam. Why, then, the sacrifice of our resources?
There will, of course, be power dams built in many parts of the country, but any benefits must be carefully weighed against the dam- age that will follow. Experts will tell you that soil erosion control should begin at the far reaches of the streams and gullies that drain into the rivers many years before the dams are built. In true American haste, we build our dams and at- tempt to plan efficient erosion con- trol at the same time, handicapping our own best interests by giving silt a real headstart.
While Chief of the Biological Survey, Jay N. Darling, almost alone in his efforts, fought the San- tee Cooper dam — and lost a good fight! Ask State Park authorities what they think of its devastating effects now. In his pamphlet, "Speaking of Flood Control," Mr. Darling has given a more graphic picture than I can hope to do. Read it.
Above all, I sincerely hope the States will not rely on the building of power dams for future state recreation.
11
Land Use — A Challenge to State Leadership
In the October State Government, published by the Council of State Governments, the entire issue is devoted to Land Use.
In the opening article on Agri- culture— the Basis of Our Economy, Louis Bromfield points out that agriculture in this country, despite the boom of war demand, is sick due to "the tradition which looked upon farms not as capital investments or as projects in good husbandry but as mines from which a farmer took everything as rapidly as possible and then moved westward to take up new, free or nominally priced acre- ages to repeat the disastrous process . ' ' Mr. Bromfield maintains that "the answer is not subsidies but a better agriculture and better land use," with protection against further ero- sion by wind and water.
Dr. Hugh H. Bennett, Chief of the Soil Conservation Service of the De- partment of Agriculture, reveals the tragic results of a survey made by his agency some ten years ago. In the United States fifty million acres of once-fertile cropland were found to be ruined for further practical cultivation and another fifty million almost as badly damaged and ready for abandonment. On a second hundred million acres, erosion had stripped away 25 to 75 percent of the topsoil. And on a third hundred million acres, the wasteful, ruinous process of erosion was found to be actively under way. This three hundred million acres of cropland — equal to the combined extent of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Maryland and Kentucky
— was in addition to millions of acres of ruined or damaged range and pasture land. The Soil Con- servation Service recommends that forty-four million acres now in cul- tivation should be shifted to grazing land or woodland to protect the soils. The inventory of conservation needs includes:
40,000,000 acres of improved or new farmland drainage.
165,000,000 acres of contour cropland cultivation.
90,000,000 acres of terracing and 97- 000,000 acres of strip cropping.
120,000,000 acres of farm woodland improvement.
10,000,000 acres of repair or improve- ment of farm irrigation systems.
7,000,000 acres of permanent water source and outlet plantings.
1,200,000 acres range and pasture stock- water developments.
107,000,000 acres of range or pasture seeding.
416,000,000 acres of improved grazing land management.
12,500,000 acres of water diversion construction.
1,000,000 acres of stream-bank stabiliza- tion.
3,000,000 acres of wildlife border strips.
Dr. Bennett concludes that "the part played by the state govern- ments and other organizations is indispensable to the success of the nation-wide soil and water conserva- tion program." The state soil con- servation districts are subdivisions of the state government and only at the level of the district can the ac- tual work be done with full effective- ness. In the past two years about thirty States have made some ap- propriations and allocations for programs in their soil conservation districts. According to Dr. Bennett: "The state extension services, pri-
12
Planning and Civic Comment
marily through the county agents, have accepted generally the re- sponsibility of conducting the over- all soil conservation educational program within the soil conservation districts."
Perry H. Merrill, State Forester of Vermont, presents A Forestry Plan for forest land ownership and use, together with an educational program. He advocates an equitable system of forest taxation. He pro- poses a practical administrative set- up which would include an Act of the Federal Government to control cutting practices through the U. S. Forest Service, which under the Clarke-McNary principle would co- operate with those States which have adopted a state-cutting practices act. Funds on a 50-50 basis would be available to the state forestry departments for the employment of county foresters to service all types of forest ownership.
On State Parks— A Recognized Land Use, Harlean James, Executive Secretary of the National Confer- ence on State Parks, points out that of 6,063,364 acres owned and ad- ministered by the respective States, 4,222,830 were classified as state parks, including scenic state parks, historic sites and monuments, state forests, wildlife areas, parkways and waysides. Colonel Richard Lieber, for many years President and Chair- man of the Board of the National Conference on State Parks, is quoted with a list of fourteen points on state-park management:
1. Provide a well-planned service area.
2. Provide a safe and ample water supply.
3. Check hs quality regularly, in season, by analysis.
4. Provide for sanitary sewage and garbage disposal.
5. Regulate quality and cost of food- stuffs and lodging.
6. Furnish fireplaces and free cookwood to campers.
7. Stop vandalism of picking or digging flowers and ferns. (Best accomplished by appeals to the public.)
8. Keep a close watch for fires.
9. Avoid all "artificial improvements" in park proper.
10. Limit automobile drives to barest needs.
11. Construct easy and pleasant paths through woods and along water's edge.
12. Maintain service of Nature Study guides.
13. Make small charge for parking and camping to assure proper maintenance.
14. Collect a small admission charge to park.
Clifford C. Presnall, in charge of Wildlife on Public Lands for the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Depart- ment of the Interior presents an article on Teamwork in Game Man- agement in which he maintains that the States, which control and ad- minister the wildlife, share the re- sponsibility of coordinated land use equally with those controlling the land. He adds:
A basic pattern underlies nearly all problems of western land use involving wildlife. The game is managed by the States for the benefit of the general public. The range is largely managed by the Federal Government, in its role as ad- ministrator of National Forests, Grazing Districts and other types of public land, and the live stock is owned by the ranchers who pay grazing fees for the use of forage on Federal, state, or private lands. Game also feed on these lands, but no grazing fees are directly received by anyone for the forage thus consumed — this despite the fact that some ranges receive heavier use from game than livestock. ... It was not until 1941 that a workable scheme was developed, a scheme involving four-way cooperation between the State, the land- owner, the Soil Conservation Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Hayden Johnson, Executive Di- rector of the Tennessee State Plan- ning Commission, presents State
13
Planning and Civic Comment
Planning for Industrial Development. Mr. Johnson declares:
The importance of an independent, adequately financed agency to coordinate a state planning program cannot be over- looked. In most States where planning functions have been made a part of a regu- lar state department, such as Conserva- tion, Public Works, or Budget, the plan- ning program has suffered and become ineffective. A state planning program must be handled by a "staff" agency within the executive department, rather than by a "line" agency attached to an operating department.
Speaking for a balanced program Mr. Johnson says:
The old idea that progress of a State could be measured only by its degree of industrialization has rapidly given way to the sounder philosophy of creating within a State the best possible balance between agriculture and industry, based upon the most efficient utilization of available local resources.
As for the program :
In States or regions where industrial- agricultural development is unbalanced and the industry all located in one city or area of the State, every possible induce- ment should be employed by the state government to disperse further industrial development as far as economically prac- ticable.
In States where the cities and industrial development are well diversified, the major function of the state government is to encourage, through its planning com- mission, sound local planning and zoning practices to insure and protect effective community development.
From Leonard A, Salter, Jr., Asso- ciate Professor, College of Agricul- ture, University of Wisconsin, comes the article on County Zoning and Postwar Problems. He discusses suburban zoning and its complexi- ties and calls attention to the fact that only about ten States have passed enabling acts for county zoning and in these ten States only about thirty counties have actually
passed suburban-type county zon- ing ordinances. He believes that state, planning agencies might in the next few years put their weight on the side of encouraging land planning and zoning in counties where haphazard construction and development can jeopardize the possibility of attaining the greatest public benefit from the expenditures of state public moneys. Under the title of countryside zoning, Pro- fessor Salter discusses strip highway zoning, and flood-plain zoning. Au- thority for agricultural county zon- ing already exists in some ten States, but this type of zoning needs to be extended.
Under the title Controlled Access and Thruway Planning in New York State, Mr. Charles H. Sells, Super- intendent of Public Works in the State of New York, explains that under the limited-access highway act of 1937 there was only one such highway constructed in New York before the war. In 1942, he says, the thruway idea was born which led to a system of thruways, created by legislative act with the approval of the Governor. These are definitely located by law and when constructed will provide a superhighway ex- tending along the western side of the Hudson River from Northern New Jersey to Albany and on through Buffalo to the Pennsylvania line, a total distance of about 485 miles. Spur thruway routes, with limited access, will branch out from the main thruway. In New York "controlled access" is now being used rather than "limited access. " The thruway system, now in process of design, is expected to cost about $202,000,000. It will pass within
14
Planning and Civic Comment
half an hour's ride of over 75 percent of the State's population. There will be three lanes in each direction, with a wide central mall. The five- year program of postwar construc- tion submitted by the State Depart- ment of Public Works to the Legis- lature and Governor would include also parkway extensions, bridges, railroad grade-crossing elimination, and secondary road development, at a total estimated cost of some $840,000,000 to be met in part by Federal Aid and in part by the
"frozen" state surplus accumulated during the past two years and now amounting to well over $300,000,000 and still growing.
We congratulate State Government on its emphasis on state leadership and activity in the land-use field. The States have the power and can raise all or part of the money needed for comprehensive, ambitious pro- grams if they will but exercise their rights instead of allowing them to lapse for want of use.
A New Field for State Planning
By HOWARD W. ODUM, Member N. C. State Planning Board
Achievements of state planning boards outside the field of physical planning have not been numerous. In North Carolina, however, the State Planning Board, under the leadership of Felix A. Grisette, Managing Director, has not hesi- tated to assume a coordinating- planning role in connection with any problem, provided (1) it is of real importance to the well-being of the State, and (2) it cuts across the areas of responsibility of two or more state agencies.
In line with this policy, the North Carolina State Planning Board has committees in the fields of health, welfare, education, cultural de- velopment, and services and se- curity for children.
Of special interest is the recent appointment of the North Carolina Resource-Use Education Commis- sion, on which is represented all of the public and private agencies and institutions of the State which have a concern for the conservation and
wise use of the State's natural, human, and institutional resources. The membership includes (1) pro- gram agencies such as the Depart- ments of Health, Welfare, Conser- vation and Development; (2) re- search agencies such as the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina, the Agricultural Experiment Station, the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, the State Academy of Science; and (3) educational agencies such as the Department of Public Instruction, the three branches of the consolidated University, private colleges, the teacher training in- stitutions, the Agricultural Exten- sion Service, the North Carolina Education Association.
At its first meeting on October 5, 1945, the Commission was addressed by Governor R. Gregg Cherry; Clyde A. Erwin, Superintendent of Public Instruction; D. Hiden Ram- sey, Chairman of the State Plan- ning Board; Howard W. Odum,
15
Planning and Civic Comment
Kenan Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina and member of the Planning Board; John E. Ivey, Jr., Executive Secre- tary of the Committee on Southern Regional Studies and Education; and Gordon W. Blackwell, Director of the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina.
A major objective will be the translation of basic research into effective materials for the schools, colleges, and adult education. In more general terms the purposes are stated as follows:
1. Provide a facility through which North Carolina educational and research agencies may achieve coordination of their efforts in the fields of resource-use education and research translation.
2. Assist the public schools and colleges in North Carolina systematically to infuse into their instructional programs current educational materials and methods designed to develop under- standing and skills in scientific resource use in their communities, state, and region.
3. Assist non-school agencies and insti- tutions more effectively to develop and use educational methods and media in an effort to bring about more adequate understanding and use of the total re- sources of the State.
4. Provide a facility for training leadership in resource-use education and research translation.
In executing its functions the Commission will rely, insofar as possible, upon the personnel and services of existing agencies in such manner as to strengthen programs in resource-use education and re- search translation undertaken by these agencies. A small staff will be supplemented by assistance from the agency-members on the Com- mission.
Activities will include assistance to school and non-school agencies in improving the effectiveness of edu- cational materials bearing on re- source development; arrangement for a materials distribution service in the State; arrangement for pro- grams to give an understanding of sound principles and effective methods for resource development to teachers, newspaper editors, minis- ters, business men, and other leaders.
It is hoped that, through the work of this Commission, state planning can bridge the gap between (1) the researchers and specialists who have the scientific know-how in resource development, and (2) all the citizens of a democracy who must share in decisions determining resource use.
A Layman Looks at a Court Decision
Fairfax County, Va. has a zoning ordinance, enacted pursuant to a State Enabling Act, which pre- scribes the uses to which premises may be put in a suburban residence district. The action was a criminal proceeding against the owner of a lot in a suburban residence district,
who stored on this lot motor ve- hicles for hire and sometimes ve- hicles stripped for parts, admitted to be mere junk. Some of the wit- nesses called the lot an automobile graveyard. Judge Bazile, in a de- cision rendered October 12, 1945, (Continued on page 42)
16
"^^
i
WHEN WINTER COMES TO THE NATIONAL PARKS
Many who can take winter vacations use them to escape rigors of the season. This means that only a few who visit parks where winter means low temperatures and deep snows ever see them when they wear their mantles of white.
The pictures shown here in this issue provide a trip to some of the National Parks and one ofj-the-beaten- track national monument without danger of frost- bitten toes or nose.
Lack of funds, seems likely to prevent the opening of some park roads which have been ploughed out during before-the-war winters. It will be possible, neverthe- less, to drive a car to Mount Rainier, northern Yellow- stone, Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Rocky Moun- tain, Acadia, Shenandoah, Sequoia, Great Smoky Mountains, and Mammoth Cave National Parks, and to some of the national monuments which have white winters. The National Park Service, though not equipped to handle winter sports tournaments and attendant spectators on a large scale, is anxious that all who can shall have a chance to visit the parks in winter and enjoy the outdoor recreation they offer, as well as to behold them in their winter dress. In a few there are overnight accommodations at all seasons of the year; in others a visit means finding such accommo- dations in the nearest town. Whether for a day's visit or longer, all possess such charm and beauty as make them worth seeing.
When winter, with 'way-below-zero temperatures, comes to Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park the spray from the geysers, blown onto nearby pines, coats them
11
j.
^
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M
heavily with white, while the geyser warmth keeps the ground nearly bare of snow. The cover photograph shows "Nature's Snow Man"; above are "Ghost Trees."
I • •
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Deep are the snows in the heart of the Olympic National- Park wilderness of western Washington.
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The majestic trunks of giant sugar pines rise above groups oj worshipping gnomes along Yosemite's Wawona Road after a heavy snow storm.
%
Telephone lines have to be kept in operation, come fair weather or foul. In California's Lassen Volcanic National Park it is no easy job in winter, though in this case the lineman was spared the task of climbing the pole.
Clearing fresh snow from the Sky- line Drive, which runs the length of Virginia's Shen- andoah National Park.
The upper picture shows the snow cut on the Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, on the first 1945 day that traffic was allowed over it. Below it is a view of Mummy Mountain from the Trail Ridge Road.
mam
f'-t
In few places in all the world is there such a combination of awful grandeur and stately beauty as in the Yosemite Valley, once a part of the first state park, but restored to
Yosemite National Park in 1905. Here, on a sunny winter morning, above the icy Merced River, are North Dome, Washington's Column and Half Dome.
Not midwinter, but June, along the highway winding through the old Mt. Tehama crater in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The snow averages 10 feet deep along the one-way cut.
Californians can leave the mild weather of the Sanjoaquin Valley, point the noses of their cars toward Yosemite, and in a few hours be in the midst of winter. The smooth slopes of Sentinel Dome offer an irresistible invitation to those who love to ski.
The Parker group of sequoias in the Giant Forest, Sequoia Na- tional Park, dwarf the winter hikers at their base.
"Do not venture over crater wall" says the sign, to those who would view distant Mount Scott and nearer Garfield Peak, in Crater Lake National Park.
Winter brings a heavy blanket to Mount Rainier National Park. This is "The Mountain" from Marmot Point on the road to Paradise Valley.
Snowfalls heavy enough for skiing can't be counted on in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in North Carolina and Tennessee. This is how the mountains look from the highway tunnel where the trans-mountain road turns on itself in its drop down into Tennessee.
Though Inscription Rock in El Morro National Monument is in west central New Mexico, winters are cold and snows are often heavy, for it is high up in the world.
State Park
±
At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Conference at Cumberland Mountain State Park, September 21, 1945, Tom Wallace of Louisville, Ky., was named as Chairman of the Board. The follow- ing were elected to fill existing va- cancies on the Board: William M. Hay of Tennessee to succeed Jacob Babler, deceased; Samuel H. Board- man of Oregon to succeed S. G. Da vies; Irwin T. Bode of Missouri to succeed Charles Elliott; Lewis G. Scoggin of Florida to take the place of Mrs. Henry Frankel who was elected a life member in 1942. R. J. Pearse of North Carolina was named alternate for Thomas W. Morse, in the armed forces. Two vacancies among the life members will be filled at a future date. Mr. Wallace will correspond with other life members to nominate two term-members for life membership, as provided in the by-laws. Present officers were elected to remain in office until the 1946 Conference of members.
The proposed Federal-aid State Park Bill, H. R. 4395 (see Watch Service Report, p. 38) was intro- duced by Chairman J. Hardin Peterson of the Public Lands Com- mittee of the House of Representa-
tives to provide for Federal aid for the acquisition and development of state parks. The method of appro- priating money follows the method already established by .the U. S. Highway appropriations. This is the bill on which Robert Kingery and his committee worked for three years and submitted three times to all of the state park authorities for their comment and suggestion. It therefore represents the best thought of state leaders in the field of state parks. Mr. Kingery's com- mittee went into the entire question of whether state parks were eligible for Federal aid and came to the con- clusion that the extensive interstate use of many state parks constituted a sound basis for Federal aid. The bill has been referred to the Public Lands Committee and is awaiting action.
Indiana: Garrett G. Eppley, former recreation specialist for the National Park Service, and Director of various USO Clubs, has been appointed Associate Professor of Recreational Education and Field Recreation Consultant for State Parks, Cities, and Schools by the Board of Trustees of Indiana State University.
33
Planning and Civic Comment
The Indiana Historical Society has offered to the State the Angel Mounds archaeological site near New- burg, and surrounding land owned by the Society. It is proposed that the conservation department recon- struct the ancient village site and develop the land as a state park. The Society reserves the right to continue excavation. The plan is favored by the Governor and Con- servation Director Matter.
Paid attendance at Hoosier state parks on November 1 stood at its highest peak since the banner year of 1941, announced the Indiana Department of Conservation on November 15th. Attendance for the first ten months of 1945 was 787,461, nearly 50 percent more than the 1944 figure of 554,520.
Louisiana: Lt. Col. Carroll Lee Wood, Jr. returned to his position as Director for the State Parks Commission, but has now resigned to engage in private business. He will continue as consulting engineer for the commission. Wm. W. Wells has been appointed Acting Director, retaining his status as Landscape Architect.
Maryland: The Maryland State Planning Commission recommended in September a 2,100-acre location in the Lusby area of Calvert County as a site for a state park on the Chesapeake Bay. The proposed park site contains 1,800 acres of woodland, besides bathing beaches and areas for development of cabin colonies and camping grounds. The area is 75 miles from Baltimore and was picked after a three-month study of sites in ten counties.
Michigan: Arthur C. Elmer en- tered on duty October 1 as Chief of the reorganized Parks and Recrea- tion Division of the Michigan De- partment of Conservation. Mr. Elmer, former Asst. Chief of the Division of Refuges of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was se- lected through a nationwide com- petitive examination given last spring by the State Civil Service Commission.
The September issue of Michigan Conservation reports that 26,773 acres of recreational lands in the southeastern counties have been acquired during the first year of the State's 100,000-acre acquisition program for which the 1944 Legis- lature made an initial appropriation of $3,000,000.
Minnesota: The Conservation De- partment, pursuant to the authority granted by the last Legislature, has opened certain portions of Itasca and St. Croix State Parks to deer hunting this year in an effort to check serious destruction of tree growth and big game food supply that has resulted from extensive deer browsing. In announcing this action, the Minnesota Emergency Conservation Committee pointed out that "This action is in pursuance of a long-range management plan for improving conditions for main- tenance of both forests and deer population at the highest attainable level approved by all deer authori- ties, which include all conservation departments that supervise deer country; all federal agencies that have to do with outdoor manage- ment; and all scientists everywhere whose work brings them in contact with forest problems. These author-
34
Planning and Civic Comment
ities also insist that of all the methods which have been tried none has ever succeeded except the opening of areas to hunting."
Texas: Frank D. Quinn, Execu- tive Director of the Texas State Parks Board for the past 6 years, resigned as of November 1 to enter the automobile business in Austin. He will continue to be interested in Texas State Parks, however, and also in state park affairs in general through the National Conference on State Parks of which he is a member of the Board of Directors. N. H. Lee, former Chief Engineer for the Parks Board, has succeeded Mr. Quinn as Executive Director. Among the outstanding accomplish- ments of the board during Mr. Quinn's administration was plan- ning for the establishment of Big Bend National Park and the pur- chase of the area of 700,000 acres of land. Thirteen state parks were established during his tenure of office.
West Virginia: Watt B. Powell has been appointed Chief, Division of State Parks, to succeed R. Bruce Griffith who resigned some months
ago. During the interim Hilbert Dahl, Landscape Architect for the Division, served as Acting Chief.
Julian H. Salomon is back again in the field of camp planning as National Camp Consultant for the Girl Scouts.
The death of Herman Cope, Secretary-Treasurer of the Penn- sylvania Parks Association since its inception in 1930, was announced in the October issue of Pennsylvania Park News. Mr. Cope had also served as Editor of the News. Those who attended the 17th National Conference on State Parks, held at Swarthmore College, Pa., June 10- 12, 1937, will recall his unfailing cooperation in arranging that meet- ing, when the Pennsylvania Parks Association acted as host. Follow- ing that meeting, Mr. Cope served as a member of the Board of Di- rectors of the Conference. His death occurred on August 30, 1945, and the fine tribute in the News testifies to his outstanding contri- bution to the cause of conservation in his State.
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACTS OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AND MARCH 3, 1933, OF PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT published quarterly, at Harrisburg, Pa., for October 1, 1945. Washington D. C. ss:
statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1933, embodied in section 537, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit:
1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor and business manager are: Publisher: American Planning and Civic Association and National Conference on State Parks, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.; Editors: Harlean James, Flavel Shurtleff, Charles G. Sauers, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.; Managing Editor: Dora A. Padgett. Business Manager: None.
2. That the owner is: American Planning and Civic Association and National Conference on State Parks, 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.
3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: (If there are none, so state.) None.
DORA A. PADGETT
Managing Editor Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27th day of September 1945.
REGINA C. McGivERN Notary Public, Washington, D. C. (My commission expires Feb. 14, 1949)
35
Strictly Personal
Earle S. Draper, formerly Deputy Commissioner of FHA, retired from the government service on Septem- ber. 30th to establish offices in Washington as a consultant in city and land planning, housing con- struction and housing finance. In accepting his resignation, Com- missioner Raymond M. Foley wrote him: "Your desire to return to pri- vate business after twelve years in public service is readily under- standable. ... I am sure you can justly feel that you have made an important contribution, especially toward solution of the war housing problems of the nation." Since 1943, Mr. Draper has been in charge of all field offices and mortgage insur- ance operations of FHA. In the early years of the war, he directed the FHA war housing program. Mr. Draper is a past president of the American Institute of Planners and serves as Third Vice-President of the American Planning and Civic Association.
Former Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts has accepted appointment as chairman of the War Department Clemency Board and in that capacity will preside over the reviewing of all of the 34,260 general court martial prison sentences. He will succeed Judge Sherman Minton, whose continued ill health makes it impossible for him to continue with the clemency board. Justice Roberts has been serving as Chairman of the Com- mittee of 100 on the Federal City during the past year.
Conrad L. Wirth, Chief of Lands, National Park Service, has been sworn in as consultant on urban and rural recreation on the rolls of the' Foreign and Economic Adminis- tration for duty in Europe, with headquarters at Vienna, Austria. He is on leave for a year from the National Park Service. During his absence, Herbert Evison will act as Chief of Lands.
Paul Oppermann has resigned as editor of the Planners' Journal, quarterly publication of the Ameri- can Institute of Planners. Lawrence Orton will succeed him as editor, as of January 1946.
Guy C. Hecker has been ap- pointed to the post of Executive Manager of the American Transit Association. Mr. Hecker's new position corresponds generally to the post of managing director of the Association, which has been vacant since the death of Charles Gordon last May. Mr. Hecker is known throughout the transit industry and is eminently qualified to become chief administrative officer of ATA.
Richard H. Amberg, just returned from four years of active duty as Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, has been appointed Director of Public Relations of the American Transit Association. He will also have general supervision of Pas- senger Transport, weekly publication of the Association.
36
Planning and Civic Comment
George W. Olcott, Park Planner, Region III, National Park Service, has been appointed a member of the Santa Fe City Planning Commission.
Walter D. Rouser, who has been manager of the Fred Harvey Union Station restaurant in Kansas City, will be general manager of all Fred Harvey activities at Grand Canyon, effective December 1. It is under- stood that Victor Patrosso will re- tire soon. Mr. Patrosso has a world- wide reputation as a capable hotel manager and has been continuously connected with the Fred Harvey organization from early youth. Since 1923 he has served as manager of El Tovar Hotel.
Duncan McDufFie of Berkeley, Calif., has been reelected to serve a second term as President of Save- the-Redwoods League.
Benton Mackaye has been elected President of the Wilderness Society to succeed the late Robert Sterling Yard. Dr. Olaus J. Murie of Jackson, Wyoming, has been ap- pointed Director and Howard Zah- niser, Executive Secretary.
El Roy Nelson has assumed the position of Director of the Tri- County Regional Planning Com- mission, succeeding Ira J. Bach, resigned. Dr. Nelson was formerly Director of the Colorado State Planning Commission and later employed by the Kaiser Industries, Inc., as research analyst.
Hugh Potter has resigned as Con-
struction Coordinator and Chair- man of the Inter-agency Committee on Construction, according to an announcement by John W. Snyder, Reconversion Director. When Mr. Potter took over the job on August 1st, he indicated that he would re- turn to private business after 90 days. He is credited with having influenced the lifting of construction controls and having opposed author- ization of home ceiling prices.
David H. Canfield is released from the armed forces and has returned to Rocky Mountain National Park as Director.
0
Elisabeth M. Herlihy, member of the Board of Directors, APCA, and Chairman, Massachusetts State Planning Board, has been named a member of the Recess Commission on Outdoor Advertising of Mas- sachusetts.
Raymond L. Pike resigned as Director of the Indiana Economic Council effective Aug. 31st. He has taken the position of district en- gineer for the Bureau of Community Facilities of the Federal Works Agency of Indiana and Kentucky.
Mel Scott has resigned as execu- tive director of the Citizens Plan- ning Council of Greater San Jose.
Mark Fortune is now senior planner with the Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, Planning Board.
Vernon Irish has been retained by I. S. Shattuck to head the Fargo,
37
Planning and Civic Comment
North Dakota, staff. He was for- several years as executive officer of merly with the City Plan Com- the former Washington State Plan- mission of St. Louis. ning Council, is now western repre- ® sentative of the Council of State
Henry J. Schnitzius, landscape Governments with headquarters in
engineer with the Indiana State San Francisco.
Highway Commission for the past ^
11 years, resigned to devote his full
time to landscape contracting and Eric F. Menke is now doing post- landscape consulting work. war planning work with Leon Zach ^ in the Chief Engineer's Office of the
Pat Hetherton, who served for War Department.
Watch Service Report
NATIONAL PARKS
H. R. 2851 (Bradley) introduced April 5, 1945. To provide for investigating the mat- ter of the establishment of a national park in the old part of the City of Philadelphia for the purpose of conserving the historical objects and buildings therein. The purpose of the bill is to set up a commission to study the grouping of the historical buildings, includ- ing Independence Hall and the old Congress for the purpose of finally establishing a na- tional historical park. Passed House on Sept. 18, 1945; Senate, November 19, 1945, amended.
H. R. 4435 (Lemke) introduced Oct. 18, 1945. To establish the Theodore Roosevelt National Park; to erect a monument in memory of Theodore Roosevelt in the village of Medora, N. Dak.
H. R. 4486 (Sikes) introduced Oct. 24, 1945. To abolish the Santa Rosa Island Na- tional Monument and to provide for the conveyance to Escambia County, State of Florida, of that portion of Santa Rosa Island which is under the jurisdiction of the De- partment of the Interior.
S. 1470 (Magnuson.) Introduced Oct. 9, 1945. To amend the act entitled, "An Act to establish the Olympic National Park in the State of Washington and for other pur- poses, approved June 29, 1938." So as to grant for an indefinite period the right to lo- cate and patent mining claims within certain areas of the Olympic National Park. Re- ferred to the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.
H. R. 3028 (Bonner) introduced April 24, 1945. To amend the Act of Aug. 17, 1937 as amended, relating to the establishment of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area in the State of North Carolina. Passed House Nov. 5, 1945. This legislation extends the date for the conveyance of lands to the U. S. in the park area until 1952.
STATE PARKS
H. R. 4395 (Peterson) of Florida introduced pet. 16, 1945. A bill to provide that the United States shall aid the States in the acquisition and development of systems of State Parks, and for other purposes. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands.
FEDERAL CITY
H. R. 3220 (Randolph) introduced May 15, 1945. To establish a Boundary Line be- tween the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Pub. Law 208, approved October 31, 1945.
S. 1426 (McCarran) introduced September 24, 1945 and re-introduced October 19, 1945. To provide for the replanning and rebuilding of slum, blighted, and other areas of the District of Columbia and the assembly, by purchase or condemnation, of real prop- erty in such areas and the sale or lease thereof for the redevelopment of such area in accordance with said plans; and to provide for the organization of, procedure for, and the
38
Planning and Civic Comment
financing of such planning, acquisition and sale or lease. Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Passed Senate Oct. 18, 1945. This is a compromise bill to take the place of the old McCarran and old Capper bills which were considered in extensive hearings before the District of Columbia Committee and is scheduled for hearings before the House Committee on the District of Columbia after the first of 1946. A large part of the bill, as it passed the Senate, was taken from the Capper Bill which was prepared by the late Alfred Bettman. As it is imperative that Congress act to permit the District of Columbia to proceed with housing and urban redevelopment, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission at its last meeting adopted a resolution in support of the bill as it passed the Senate. It is thought that if further revisions are needed, they can be offered later in the form of amendments to the bill. Further delay would most certainly hamper housing and redevelopment in the District of Columbia.
H. R. 4283 (Randolph) introduced Oct. 4, 1945. To require parking facilities for persons employed in the Federal Office Buildings in the District of Columbia. Passed House October 22, 1945.
HOUSING
S. 1592 (Wagner, EHender, Taft) introduced November 14, 1945. To establish a national housing policy and provide for its execution.
This is a revision of the Wagner-EIIender bill, S. 1342, introduced August 1, 1945. Of special interest to members of APCA is the new Title II to provide funds for housing and planning research and grants to local communities for studies, surveys and plans, and the Title VI which provides for land assembly for participation by private enterprise in redevelopment. The revised bill provides that under the local determination of need, the redevelopment plan must be based on a local survey which conforms to a compre- hensive plan for the locality as a whole. This wording was the result of discussion at a dinner in October called by the APCA to consider the planning features of the original Wagner-EIIender bill. The Wagner-EIIender-Taft bill also provides that urban redevelop- ment be administered by a director to carry out, under the Housing Administrator, the provisions of Title VI. From the hearings, which began November 27th, it would appear that some further revisions of the housing provisions of the bill, which still differ in some respects from the Report of the Taft Sub-Committee (See Planning and Civic Comment July, 1945, p. 17) will be made.
H. R. 4761 (Patman) introduced November 20, 1945. To amend the National Hous- ing Act by adding thereto a new title relating to the prevention of speculation and ex- cessive profits in the sale of housing, and to insure the availability of real estate for hous- ing purposes at fair and reasonable prices.
POLLUTION
H. R. 519 (Mundt) introduced January 3, 1945. To prevent pollution of the waters of the United States and to correct existing water pollution as a vital necessity to public health, economic welfare, healthful recreation, navigation, the support of invaluable aquatic life, and as a logical and desirable post-war public-works program.
H. R. 587 (Mrs. Smith of Maine) introduced January 3, 1945. To create a Division of Water Pollution Control in the United States Public Health Service.
H. R. 3972 (Bailey) introduced September 10, 1945. To encourage the prevention of stream pollution by allowing amounts paid for plants for the treatment of industrial waste as a deduction in computing net income.
H. R. 4070 (Spence) introduced September 14, 1945. To provide for water-pollution- control activities in the United States Public Health Service.
Extensive hearings were held in November on the Mundt, Spence and Smith bills. All of the witnesses testified to the need for controlling pollution. State Public Health officers generally were in favor of the Spence Bill which would provide for further in- vestigation and surveys under the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service. Con- servation organizations were very generally for the Mundt Bill which would set up a national board of water pollution control consisting of the Secretaries of Interior, Agri- culture, War and Navy and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, which shall encourage cooperative action by the several States, classify navigable waters into sanitary water districts, fix standards of cleanliness and abate nuisances. Kenneth A. Reid and William Voigt, Jr., of the Izaak Walton League and Tom Wallace, Vice- President of the APCA, testified to the need for a bill with power to act. There was evidence that the Committee might report a compromise bill.
39
Commentaries
In the 1944 Rivers and Harbors Act, approved December 22, 1944,
"The Chief of Engineers, under the super- vision of the Secretary of War, is author- ized to construct, maintain, and operate public park and recreational facilities in reservoir areas under the control of the War Department, and to permit the con- struction, maintenance and operation of such facilities. The Secretary of War is authorized to grant leases of lands, includ- ing structure or facilities thereon, in reservoir areas for such periods and upon such terms as he may deem reasonable: Provided, That preference shall be given to Federal, State or local governmental agencies, and licenses may be granted without monetary consideration, to such agencies for the use of areas suitable for public park and recreational purposes, when the Secretary of War determines such action to be in the public interest. The water areas of all such reservoirs shall be open to public uses generally, without charge, for boating, swimming, bathing, fishing and other recreational purposes, and ready access to and exit from such water areas along the shores of such reservoirs shall be maintained for general public use, when such use is determined by the Secretary of War not to be con- trary to the public interest, all under such rules as the Secretary of War may deem necessary. No use of any area to which this section applies shall be permitted which is inconsistent with the laws for the protection of fish and game of the State in which such area is situated."
This is a good opener. If we could make certain that plans for dams and reservoirs from the beginning took preservation of scenic beauty and op- portunities for recreation into account, all the administrative provisions above would raise the public interest many fold.
Report on the Potomac River Basin. In its recent report on the Potomac River Basin, the Interstate Commission has explained the origin of the movement. It is recalled that the Special Advisory Committee on Water Pollution of the
National Resources Committee, at the conclusion of its first report, dated July of 1935, recommended the establishment of a Potomac River Conservancy Dis- trict as a demonstrational unit for the abatement of river pollution. Subse- quent to a recommendation of the Rivers and Harbors Committee of the Wash- ington Board of Trade, the Potomac Valley Joint Conference on River Pol- lution was organized and in December of 1937, appointed a compact committee. The Council of State Governments, as coordinating agency for the Com- missions on Interstate Cooperation, reviewed the compact with repre- sentatives of the States and the District of Columbia and it was accepted in March of 1939. The compact was then introduced in the legislative bodies of the respective jurisdictions and received final approval as follows:
United States: Approved by Congress July 11, 1940.
Virginia: Signed by the Governor November 18, 1940.
Maryland: Signed by the Governor January 28, 1941.
District of Columbia: Signed by the Commissioners February 14, 1941.
West Virginia: Signed by the Governor March 31, 1941.
Pennsylvania: Passed by the Legisla- ture.
Thus the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin was formed, consisting of three members from each signatory State and the District of Columbia and three members appointed by the President of the United States.
The Commission, in its introductory report, recommends:
The Potomac River Basin, having an abundance of good farm land, many un- developed natural resources, a large po- tential supply of hydroelectric power and a well-developed transportation system, offers excellent opportunities for expansion to industrialist, farmer and recreation seeker. But the river must be used wisely and the importance of a planned program for pollution control and the development
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Planning and Civic Comment
of the watershed cannot be over empha- sized. The river, like others, has natural ability to absorb and purify wastes, but if it is polluted excessively it may not re- cover, and the water will be rendered un- suitable for domestic or industrial pur- poses, fish life will become impossible, bathing dangerous, boating undesirable and real estate values decline. The river serves as a waste depository, but this is only one of its many uses and should not be given a disproportionate place in its utility and development. Any program of pollution abatement and control must take into consideration the demand upon the fiver for other purposes, and these varying interests must be coordinated to bring about the greatest profit to all from the river's resources.
^ Washington After the War. At the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington there was from September 9 to October 21, 1945, a notable display of Plans, Models and Drawings by the National Commission of Fine Arts and the Na- tional Capital Park and Planning Com- mission, in cooperation with the Archi- tect of the Capitol, the Public Buildings Administration and the Public Roads Administration of the Federal Works Agency, the U. S. Engineer Office, the National Park Service in the Depart- ment of the Interior, the Director of Highways and the Municipal Architect of the District of Columbia Government, the National Capital Housing Authority, and the Washingtoniana Division of the D. C. Public Library.
In the folder distributed to the public there is presented a short history of the plan of Washington and a catalog of the exhibit material.
Illinois Provides State Aid for Local Planning. The Illinois Legislature 'has adopted an Act which recognizes the importance of community planning pro- grams for public works and sets up a system of State Aid under which $4,- 850,000 may be allocated to local agencies for (1) apportionment to coun-
ties to defray one-half the cost of pre- paring plans for the construction of highways, public buildings and other public works and facilities, and (2) for apportionment to municipalities to defray one-half the cost of plans for proj- ects for publicly owned and operated facilities, utilities and services; public buildings, streets and other public works. For both counties and cities there is a basic grant of $1,000 after which the allocation depends on popu- lation. The disbursements are to be made by the Director of Finance upon certification of the Illinois Postwar Planning Commission. The November Illinois Municipal Review regrets that applications are coming in slowly and many of those received are defective!
Cincinnati Looks at Trends in Sister Cities. Sherwood Reeder, Director of Planning in Cincinnati, in a Memo- randum prepared in November for the City Planning Commission presents some interesting statistics on effects of population growth on the well-being of cities.
During the decade from 1930 to 1940 the total value of all construction in the United States declined 11.3 percent but a selected group of cities of static population recorded a drop in building activity of 41.1 percent while a se- lected group of growing cities increased their construction dollar value 22.5 per- cent.
While the value of new residential construction was dropping 10 percent in the static cities, the growing cities were enjoying 125 percent rise in building activity.
In 1939, the retail sales in static cities were 23.3 percent less than in 1929, while they declined only 7.23 percent in grow- ing cities.
Retail employment increased 12 per- cent in the growing cities and decreased 9 percent in those not growing.
City transportation systems, in order to provide the funds to maintain their services, depend almost entirely upon income derived from the revenue pas- sengers they carry. There was a decline
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Planning and Civic Comment
of 8 percent in the non-growing cities compared with an increase of 3 percent 'in the growing cities.
In the growing group, total volume of bank debits dropped 9 percent, but in the non-growing group the decline was 26 percent.
Per capita revenues from the general property tax increased 1.4 percent in the non-growing cities and declined 4.6 percent in the growing group.
The tax rate increased 66 percent (from $15.19 to $25.12) in the non-
growing cities as compared with a 10 percent increase (from $13.02 to $14.32) in the growing group.
The growing cities achieved a 36 percent reduction in per capita gross debt and a 40 percent reduction in net bonded debt, whereas reductions in non-growing cities were 20 and 26 per- cent respectively.
What about the year 2000 when it is predicted that our total population will have stabilized and cities can no longer hope to live on their increase?
A Layman Looks at a Court Decision
(Continued from page 16) claims that, while the General Assembly undoubtedly delegates to Boards of Supervisors the police power of the Commonwealth to adopt zoning ordinances, the right to regulate does not mean the right to prohibit totally uses of land, but only to establish reasonable limita- tions. The Judge uses as an example that no one could properly contend that the use of such a lot for a tennis court or a croquet green would be inconsistent with its use as residence property. Judge Bazile maintains that the proper way to draw such an act is to prohibit specific uses. He, therefore, holds the ordinance in- valid insofar as it attempts to pro- hibit the use of the accused's land for all purposes except the enumer- ated uses permitted.
Court decisions are apt to be ob- scure to laymen. But this recent decision of Judge Bazile in the Cir- cuit Court of Fairfax County is wholly incomprehensible to those who have followed zoning cases for the past quarter of a century. The
Euclid Village case which turned on an ordinance which enumerated positive uses was finally held valid by the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Bassett, our greatest authority on zoning law, maintains: "It was never the intention of zoning to make districts exclusively residential, but rather that resi- dences should be protected against harmful use." In this case, let us suppose that all the owners of land in the suburban residence district chose to use their lots as the accused did his. Certainly, the district would no longer be residential, but com- mercial. That would seem to be the test.
As a criminal proceeding, we are told that this case cannot be ap- pealed. Fortunately, the Common- wealth's attorney has filed a test suit which can be carried to the highest courts in the land. This should settle definitely whether zoning ordinances phrased as in the Fairfax County ordinance (and in many other cities and counties) are valid.
42
Fall Planning Conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The ninth in the series of annual planning conferences at Massachu- setts Institute of Technology was held from October 22d to Novem- ber 2d inclusive. It made a new record for the number of partici- pants and for the wide range of representation. An international note was contributed by the repre- sentatives from the Montreal Plan Commission and the Planning De- partments of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Officers of the Air Technical Service Command and several civil- ian technicians of the same Service came for suggestions in the planning of modern airports.
As in past years, Frederick Adams conducted the sessions on planning techniques, and Flavel Shurtleff those on planning legislation and administration. But more variety was introduced in the program by Homer Hoyt's economic discussions, Roland Greeley's talks on the regional survey and environmental standards, and the planning story of Bergen County contributed by Stuart Currier, the supervisor of the county planning work.
Hartford, Connecticut, and Hous- ton, Texas, sent their engineers who have charge of planning; Atlantic City, the research engineer in charge of community projects; the Georgia School of Technology, the head of its Department of Architecture; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, an associate professor of architecture; and Ohio State University, an associate professor of landscape architecture.
This two-weeks course at M.I.T. does not make planning technicians out of laymen or even out of archi- tects and engineers, but it gives a view of the planning field and its legal background and serves as a good refresher course.
Those who participated in the Conference were: Orlo A. Bartho- lomew, Research Engineer, Com- munity Projects Council, Atlantic County, N. J. ; John Thomas Black- well, Planning Student, Cambridge, Mass.; Harold Bush-Brown, Head of Department of Agriculture, Geor- gia Tech; Charles- Edouard Cam- peau, Engineer at Montreal City Planning Department; Honorato Colete, Chief of Cities and Parks Department, Ministry of Public Works, Habana, Cuba; Charles Wallace Cooke, Division Engineer, Hartford, Conn.; Donald Robert Courtney, Plans Engineer, Air Tech- nical Service Command, Patterson Field, Ohio; Stuart D. Currier, Supervisor, Bergen County Planning Board, N. J.; Filiberto Garcia, Head Planner, Puerto Rico Planning Board, San Juan, P. R.; Roland Gariepy, Architect, City Planning Department, Montreal, Canada; Herbert S. Green, Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas; Irving Hand, Plan- ning Student, Cambridge, Mass.; Major Lynn M. F. Harriss, National Park Service, Marion, N. C.; Mil- lard Humstone, Planning Techni- cian, Greenwich, Conn.; Major Ar- nold Franklin Igleburger, Architec- tural Engineer, Wright Field, Ohio; Ben Johnson, City Planning En-
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Planning and Civic Comment
gineer, Houston, Texas; Walter L. Miles, Administrative Assistant, McCIellan Field, Calif.; Herbert Walter Stevens, Planning Techni- cian, M. I. T.; Charles R. Sutton, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Ohio State University; Arthur C. Sylvester, Chief, Planning Section Headquarters, Wright Field, Ohio; Ralph Everett Taylor, Archi- tectural Engineer, Brookley Field,
Ala.; Emil Angell Tiboni, Field Secretary, American Public Health Association; Pasquale Mario Tor- raca, Associate Professor of Archi- tecture, Virginia Polytechnic In- stitute; Lucile van Dresser, Archi- tect, and Peter van Dresser, Secre- tary, Industrial Development Office, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Major Stanley K. Walborn, Planning Board Assistant, Robins Field, Ga.
IN MEMORIAM
RICHARD BENEDICT WATROUS
1869-1945
Richard Watrous was of the rare type of useful citizens who are not expected ever to die. Recently he retired from active service, went to the sunny climate of the West and then, to my great delight, was pulled back to his old New England neighborhood. To have him pass away on October 22, 1945, has simply let down an important post under the civic platform which for so many years he effectively helped to maintain.
I may presume to speak rather personally about this good man be- cause I brought him in 1909 from Milwaukee, where I had seen him function, and gave him a mighty hard job to carry along the newly formed American Civic Association. This he did with great success, and yet never in such fashion as to close the door to those who might follow after.
Born in Wisconsin in 1869 and educated at Lawrence University, Appleton, he began his career as a
newspaper man. After ten years as an editor, he engaged first in civic work as secretary of the Citizens Business League • of Milwaukee. He then served from 1909 to 1917 as Secretary of the American Civic Association. He was effective, and when I think of the occasions on which he participated with me re- garding Niagara, the National Parks, and a dozen other things which are accepted now as matters no longer to be discussed, I am the more in appreciation of what he meant to the civic side of American ad- vance.
In recent years he served as secre- tary of the Providence Chamber of Commerce, the Rhode Island Di- vision of the New England Council, as president of the Civic Improve- ment and Park Association of Prov- idence, also as member of the Advisory Council of the American Planning and Civic Association.
Wherever he lived, he was always the genial, fine-spirited, quick-acting
44
Planning and Civic Comment
worker, and I am glad thus to testify so that his memory may be precious to those who swung into
civic advance, not always with him but often close at his heels.
J. HORACE MCFARLAND Harrisburg, Pa.
HAROLD A. CAPARN
1865-1945
One of the charter members of the American Civic Association in 1904, Harold A. Caparn, died in New York City on September 24, 1945, at the age of 80. A prominent mem- ber of the profession of landscape architecture, he maintained a deep interest in the work of the Associa- tion and served on its Board of Directors for many years, giving freely of his expert advice and coun- sel in shaping policies and activities. In latter years, he served as a mem- ber of the Advisory Council of the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation. Measured by years, Mr. Caparn's service to the Association covers a period of nearly half a cen- tury, which is an outstanding record.
He maintained a very active in- terest in the development of New York City, where he resided and maintained his offices, and was a member of many of its organizations
for the promotion of better civic life. Active in the New York Chap- ter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he was asso- ciated also with the Architectural League, City Gardens Club and many other organizations.
Close to his heart was the move- ment to protect Central Park. He was the author of an article in the initial issue of the AMERICAN Civic ANNUAL in 1929 urging support of the efforts to safeguard this famous old park.
With the passing of Mr. Caparn, the Association has lost one of its outstanding members, a gentle, gracious man. The death of pioneer workers and thinkers is a severe loss, although it cannot fail to be a satis- faction that many of the objectives for which the organization was es- tablished by its founders have been realized.
PAUL PHILLIPPE CRET
1876-1945
The death of Paul P. Cret on September 8, 1945, removes from the American scene one of the most distinguished Franco- American arch- itects. Although born in France and a student of architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyons and Paris, Mr. Cret was closely asso- ciated with the United States for the
greater part of his life. Outstanding among the structures he designed which adorn American cities are the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Pan-American Union in Washington, D. G, Valley Forge Memorial Arch in Philadelphia, Detroit Institute of Arts, Indianapolis Public Library and the Hartford County Building.
45
Planning and Civic Comment
He designed also the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Rodin Mu- seum, and the Delaware River Bridge for which he received the Philadelphia Award in 1931. He was awarded many of the highest honors bestowed by France and the United States in the field of architecture. Long a member of the American
Planning and Civic Association, Mr. Cret had been a leader in the city planning movement in Philadelphia. From 1903 to 1937 he was professor of design at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate trus- tee of the University at the time of his death. He had been in private practice since 1937.
T. GLENN PHILLIPS 1877-1945
We regret to report the death of T. Glenn Phillips, landscape archi- tect and city planner, in Detroit, Michigan, on August 4, 1945. Mr. Phillips had been a member of the American Planning and Civic Asso- ciation since 1930 and served as Chairman of the Detroit Committee on arrangements when the Asso- ciation held its traveling annual meeting in that city in 1931.
He served as Chairman of the Detroit Federal City Committee of the then American Civic Association during the years when national forces were mobilized for the sup- port of the legislation to establish
the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
Mr. Phillips engaged in the pri- vate practice of landscape architec- ture and city planning. Among his better known works are the grounds of the Sacred Heart Seminary, University of Detroit, Seminole Hills at Pontiac, campus of Michi- gan State College at East Lansing, and the Belleville District at South Bend, Indiana. He had been re- tained as city planning consultant by numerous Michigan cities. He served as a member of the original Detroit City Planning Commission from 1909 to 1918 and as its plan- ning consultant from 1919 to 1928.
JOHN CAMPBELL MERRIAM
1869-1945
The death of Dr. John C. Merriam on October 30, 1945, at Oakland, Calif., occurred after a six-month illness. This distinguished scientist, a paleontologist by profession, served as head of the Carnegie Institution for 17 years. He retired in 1938 with the title of President Emeritus. As head of the Carnegie Institution, Dr. Merriam was re- sponsible for, and personally con-
ducted, dozens of significant expe- ditions. Many of his explorations were in the United States, especially in the Southwest. One of his great- est personal successes came when he unearthed evidences of prehis- toric animals in the asphalt lakes of California.
In 1928, Dr. Merriam was named, with other distinguished scientists, by Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, then
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Planning and Civic Comment
Secretary of the Interior, on a Com- mittee for the Study of Educational Problems in the National Parks. Their significant efforts stressed the inspirational and educational values existing in national parks and rec- ommended a program of inter- pretation which has enriched the experience of every national park visitor.
Dr. Merriam's scientific achieve- ments are too numerous to mention here and his writings too voluminous to list in detail. His emphasis on the
significance of the evolution of life, as exemplified in national park areas, has proved that education of this sort can be alluring and beneficial to park visitors.
Dr. Merriam was a brother of Dr. Charles E. Merriam, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and a member of the former National Resources Plan- ning Board. His son is Lawrence C. Merriam, Regional Director, Region 1 1 of the National Park Service.
Recent Publications
Compiled by {Catherine McNamara, Librarian of the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Harvard University
ABERCROMBIE, SIR PATRICK, and OTHERS. A plan for Bath, prepared for the Bath and District Joint Planning Committee, by Sir Patrick Abercrombie, John Owens, H. Anthony Mealand. Bath, Eng., The Committee, 1945. 174 pages. Mimeographed. IIIus., maps, plans, tables (part folded).
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGH- WAY OFFICIALS. A policy on grade sep- arations for intersecting highways. Washington, The Association, 1944. 175 pages. IIIus., plans, diagrs., elevations, tables, charts. Price $1.00.
AMERICAN COMMISSION FOR LIVING WAR MEMORIALS. More about memorials that live. Data concerning recreational & physical fitness facilities for consider- ation in choosing a war memorial. Co- lumbus, Ohio, The Commission, 1945. 35 pages. IIIus., plans, cross section, tables, chart.
BAUER, CATHERINE. Housing in the United States: problems and policy. Reprinted from the International la- bour review, vol. LI I, no. 1, July 1945. Montreal, International Labour Office, 1945. 28 pages. Tables.
BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES. IN- FORMATION DIVISION. Wartime plan- ning for physical reconstruction in Great Britain; rev. New York, The Services, May 1945. 31 pages.
COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOP- MENT. RESEARCH COMMITTEE. Post- war employment and the removal of wartime controls; a statement on na-
tional policy. New York, The Com- mittee, 1945. 31 pages.
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Ur- ban housing survey. Interviews con- ducted August 1944. Information com- piled and published as of June 1945. Philadelphia, The Co., 1945. 71 pages. Map, tables, charts.
DOWER, JOHN. National parks in England and Wales, presented by the Minister of Town and Country Planning to Par- liament by command of His Majesty, May 1945. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1945. 57 pages. Maps, tables. (Cmd. 6628.) Price Is. At head of title: Ministry of Town and Country Planning.
EWING, RUSSELL H. The implementation of municipal research through civic organization. Los Angeles, Calif., Na- tional Bureau of Civic Research, 1944. 10 pages. Mimeographed. Chart.
KENNEDY, G. DONALD. The story of high- ways. Results of federal aid to the states and an outline of postwar needs. An exhibit in charts and pictures, based on the report entitled: "The role of the federal government in highway develop- ment." Washington, Automotive Safety Foundation, June 1944. 26 pages. IIIus., maps, tables, charts.
KIMMEL, LEWIS H., and ASSOCIATES. Postwar fiscal requirements, federal, state, and local, by Lewis H. Kimmel and associates, Adah L. Lee, Mildred Maroney. Washington, The Brookings Institution, 1945. 166 pages. Tables, charts. Price $2.00.
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Planning and Civic Comment
KLUTZNICK, PHILIP M. Statement sub- mitted to a subcommittee of the Com- mittee on the District of Columbia, United States Senate. [Washington, U. S. Federal Public Housing Authority, 1945.] 34 pages. Mimeographed. Tables, charts. Comments on Public versus private housing, by National Industrial Conference Board.
KOLB, JOHN G., and DOUGLAS G. MAR- SHALL. Neighborhood-community re- lationships in rural society. Madison, Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion, Nov. 1944. 55 pages. Maps, tables, charts. (Research Bulletin 154.)
LEVIN, DAVID R. Legal aspects of con- trolling highway access; a study by the Division of Financial and Administra- tive Research. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1945. 46 pages. IIIus., maps, plans, table.
At head of title: Public Roads Ad- ministration, Federal Works Agency.
THE MUNICIPAL YEAR BOOK, 1945. The authoritative resume of activities and statistical data of American cities. Editors, Clarence E. Ridley, Orin F. Nolting. Chicago, The International City Managers' Association, 1945. 603 pages. Maps, tables, charts. Price $8.50.
PLANNING: current literature, vol. 1, no. 1, to date. Compiled by the library staff from publications received in the libraries of the Federal Works Agency. Washington, The Agency, Jan. 8, 1945 to date. Lithoprinted.
PURDOM, C. B. How should we rebuild London. With drawings by Batt. London, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1945. 326 pages. IIIus., plan, tables. Price 12s. 6d.
RALSTON, JACKSON H. Confronting the land question. Bayside, N. Y., The American Association for Scientific Taxation, 1945. 104 pages. Price $1.00.
REGIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MISSOURI] V[ ALLEY] A[UTHORITY]. An M.V.A. for all. Omaha, Neb., The Committee, [1945.] 20 pages. IIIus. Price 10 cents.
SHATTS, W. PHILLIP. Planned develop- ment of metropolitan regions. St. Louis, Mo., Metropolitan Plan Association, 1945. 8 pages.
Reprinted from the Journal of the Engineers' Club of St. Louis, Mar.-Apr. 1945.
STEPHENSON, FLORA, and PHOEBE POOL. A plan for town and country. Foreword by Julian Huxley. London, The Pilot Press Ltd., 1944. 60 pages. IIIus., maps, table, charts. (Target for To- morrow, no. II.) Price 4s. 6d.
SULLIVAN, THOMAS ALAN, comp. Laws
relating to the National Park Service; supplement I, July 1933 through April 1944. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 207 pages. At head of title: United States Department of the Inte- rior, National Park Service.
U. S. BUREAU OF THE CENSUS. Govern- mental units in the United States, 1942, prepared under the supervision of E. R. Gray. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 67 pages. Lithoprinted. Maps, tables, charts. Price 20 cents.
U. S. BUREAU OF TRANSPORT ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS. Some aspects of post- war air and surface transportation. . . Washington, The Bureau, Jan. 1945. 183 pages. Mimeographed. Tables, charts. (Statement no. 454. File no. 319-B-3.)
U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRA- TION. Airport planning for urban areas. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, June 1, 1945. 98 pages. Illus., maps, plans, diagrs., cross sections, tables, charts. Price 20 cents.
U. S. CONGRESS. 78TH. 2o SESSION. HOUSE. National airport plan. Letter from the Acting Secretary of Commerce trans- mitting a report of a survey of the need for a system of airports and landing areas throughout the United States. . . Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1945. 120 pages. Maps, tables, charts. (House Document no. 807.)
U. S. NATIONAL CAPITAL HOUSING AU- THORITY. Report of the National Capi- tal Housing Authority for the ten-year period, 1934-1944. Washington, The Authority, 1944. 219 pages. IIIus., map, plans, tables, charts.
U. S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. BRANCH OF LANDS. State parks, 1944. Expendi- tures, source of funds, attendance, per- sonnel, land acquisition, post war pro- gram, compiled from the 1944 annual records on state park lands and related areas. [Chicago, III.], The Service, June, 1945. 17 pages. Lithoprinted. Tables.
U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. Planning schools for tomorrow. The schools and recreation services. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1944. 23 pages. (Leaf- let no. 73.) Price 10 cents.
URBAN LAND INSTITUTE. Technical bulle- tin no. 1 to date. Washington, The Institute, [1945] to date. Membership $10.00.
WOLF ANGER, Louis A. Your community and township zoning. East Lansing, Michigan Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion, Feb. 1945. 50 pages. IIIus., maps, table. (Circular Bulletin 184.)
48
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